April 2000
A Somali National Peace Conference, hosted by the Djibouti government, will take place in Djibouti, on the 20th of April 2000. The principal aim of this conference is to form a transitional government for Somalia. To prepare the groundwork for this conference, Mr I.O.Guelle, the president of the Republic Of Djibouti has recently invited 60 Somalis, mostly from the Diaspora communities whom he referred to as “Somali intellectuals,” to Djibouti. This group would form what the officials in Djibouti called a “technical consultative symposium”, to advice the Djibouti government on the conference and ways of recreating a central government for the ex-Somalia.
In their first order of business, and after many squabbles, this group had, on Tuesday 28th of March 2000, released their first press release. In it, they call on the people of the Republic of Somaliland, who have already left Somalia’s political experiment in 1991, to participate in the conference and join the negotiations! The organizers of this conference have also, for the first time ever, acknowledged the suffering and struggle of the people of Somaliland under the old rule of “Greater” Somalia. For example, some of their statement reads that “We, the participants of the technical Consultative symposium of Djibouti’s peace initiative on Somalia believe in the following: - Cognizant with the painful destruction endured by all Somalis, we affirm that the devastation subjected to the people of the Northern Somalia (Somaliland) in the name of the last Somali regime was enormous and greater in its intensity than anywhere else in Somalia.”
The people of Somaliland, naturally, welcome this belated but historic admission. However, actions speak louder than words, and the Apology of the conference organizers will not carry any weight since the motive behind it is to soften the stand of the people of Somaliland on their sovereignty and to coax them into entering another federation with Somalia. Therefore, the Somaliland Forum, an association of civil society members from Somaliland, calls on the Djibouti government and the participants of this symposium to bring the individuals who have committed crimes against humanity to justice, instead of repeating empty political slogans and rhetoric. These criminals should have been apprehended and immediately brought to justice. However, the government of Djibouti, for some reason, allows some of these criminals to come and go in that country without any restrictions.
In the spirit of this apology, the Somaliland Forum calls on the Djibouti government to either hand these war criminals over to the Somaliland government or fulfill its international legal obligations and apprehend them, as they have committed such horrendous crimes against the Somaliland people. Without doubt, some of the most notorious war criminals from Siad Barre’s regime are currently staying in Djibouti masquerading as legitimate representatives of their civil society in this conference hosted by Djibouti. We also call on the other members of the community of nations to take similar actions against the war criminals of the former Somali republic, if and when these criminals travel through their countries.
In addition, the Somaliland Forum believes that the participants of the consultative symposium should get their agenda priorities right and rectify the inherent contradictions in their agenda, if their stated goal of finding a solution to the Somali Problem is sincere. The organizers apologize for past wrong doings and crimes committed in the name of Somalia, while, at the same time, they blatantly disregard and violate the inalienable rights of self-determination of the Somaliland people to determine their own political destiny. The people of Somaliland, as all the participants are very well aware of, have reinstated their independence and lost sovereignty through practical democratic ways and means in 1991. Thus, Somaliland’s sovereignty is not negotiable and should not be discussed in this conference at all.
This sovereignty issue was decided in 1991, and the people of Somaliland had repeatedly conveyed a clear message to the international community. After all, the people of Somaliland have peace and their own government, and there is no need to invite them to a conference on Somalia’s state formation.
In light of this blatant disregard of the wishes of the Somaliland people, the members of the Somaliland Forum conclude that the apology from the consultative symposium of the conference is utterly hypocritical and dishonest, and cannot be taken seriously. It is merely another false pretense in the political trade to destabilize our country and negate Somaliland’s achievements over the last nine years. Somaliland Forum’s message to President I.O.Guelle and the Djibouti conference attendants, in this regard, is the same, as it always has been the case: YOU SHOULD PRACTICE WHAT YOU ARE PREACHING. You cannot apologize for crimes committed against our people, while, at the same time, sheltering some of the very same people who had committed these crimes against us. You cannot also vilify the people of Somaliland for seeking or wanting the same thing that Djibouti already has, an independent Somali-speaking state.
Somaliland Forum