Ref. SF/EC-015-2000
Wednesday, 21 June 2000
A group of so-called Somali traditional elders, who were hand picked by President Ismail Omer Guelleh, of Djibouti, have recently concluded their month long talk at Arta, Djibouti, over the political future of Somalia. It has been reported by the world media that these elders have agreed on a six-point plan, which covers everything from peace making between their warring communities in former Somalia’s South to re-inventing the failed Somali state.
The Somaliland Forum welcomes the idea of peace making between the Somali communities. For this essential component in human existence has been eluding Somalia for a very long time now. These elders, however, have over-stepped their traditional role in the Somali culture by denying the people of Somaliland their political independence! They have, once again, made the same old mistake of calling for the formation of “Greater” Somali state, the mother of all Somali political troubles. They have even gone further with their usual baseless claim over Somaliland’s people by reiterating the point that “Somali political unity is sacrosanct!”
Therefore, we would like to inform the world community that this latest move by President Guelleh of Djibouti and his handpicked traditional elders would undoubtedly jump-start a new cycle of violence in the Horn of Africa. Evidently, there is going to be another renewed fratricidal war between the two Somali states. “This will add a new layer of complexity to the already prolonged political mismatch in the Somali peninsula of the Horn. It will also ignite another senseless war in the region, which is still reeling with the agony of the already miscalculated Ethio-Etritrean war of recent months,” said Amina Malko, Chair of Somaliland Forum.
As the Somaliland government has already warned, it is all but certain that Somaliland will strongly resist any imposition of illegitimate authority, which might emerge from the conference at Arta, Djibouti, over its territory. Such illegal claim over the political destiny of the people of Somaliland could manifest itself in several ways.
First, those convened at Arta are contemplating the allocation of government seats to certain individuals whose roots lie in Somaliland. While we like them to come back home and take part in the nation building in Somaliland, we will consider them like the Palestinians in the Jordanian parliament and Cabinet, if they chose to take seats in the government of the newly invented Somali state. They both have the choice to go home, yet they both are participating in other country’s political processes. After all, Jordan was part of the Old Syrian federation before the European colonialism, which consisted of Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and Syria proper. So too is the current Somali story that is in the making at Arta. In other words, there is going to be three Somali states, in the Old Somali territories, Somaliland, the Republic of Djibouti and Somalia, which is still in the making. We welcome this three Somali-republics formula, but not the other way around, which will lead us all to war.
Secondly, it is ill conceivable for the international community to rush to judgment and blindly accept Arta Conference’s outcome, without making sure that there is a clear political demarcation between Somaliland and Somalia. “The people of Somaliland have already spoken, and it is in the best interest of the Horn of Africa as a whole that their voices be heeded and respected,” said Amina Malko. Otherwise, as the Somaliland government’s spokesperson has already warned (See AFP dispatch from Hargeisa, on June 16), the net result of the Arta Conference would be an unnecessary war in the region. A region that is on the brink of facing yet another darkened cloud of war, in addition to its myriad of other problems including famine, a record number of refugee influx, and stagnant economic growth and development.