Somaliland Forum COMMUNIQUÉ Wednesday May 16, 2001 Ref.SF/EC-032-2001
To: The Secretary General of the United NationsCc: The Secretary General of the League of Arab States The Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity
The Secretary General of the IGAD
President of the Security Council of the United Nations
Members of the Security Council of the United Nations
Excellencies,
On April 29, 2001, you all received a letter from Mr. Abdullahi Yussuf
Ahmed of Puntland, which was particularly addressed to the
Secretary-General of the United Nations with regard to the upcoming referendum vote by the people of the Republic of Somaliland. In it, Mr. Ahmed retold some old facts about the current lamentable political, social and economic state of the people of Somalia, who, as he put it “has been in the throes of civil war, chaos and suffering for the most part of the past decade.” However, Mr. Ahmed failed to give you, your Excellencies, the true and unbiased political picture of the region. Nor did he offer you his honest views on the actual root cause of the current Somali political predicament. So with your permission, your Excellencies, we are writing to you to give you an analysis on this rather intricate web of political relationship between Somaliland and Somalia in response to Mr. Ahmed’s grossly misleading letter on such important issues of territoriality, statehood and power in the African context.
We begin with a brief overview of the root causes of the war. As you all know, Somalia has been the scene of violent protracted conflict for nearly two decades now. An estimated one million people have already died from war-related causes through the course of the still raging civil war, while hundreds of thousands have also been displaced from their homes as well. Some parts of Somalia still face civil war, famine, economic difficulties and political instability. Sadly, the conflict shows no sign of ending in
many parts of that country, despite numerous peace-making efforts by the international and regional organizations.
As no doubt you all know, the Somali Republic formed in 1960, which some mistakenly nowadays equate with Somalia, your excellencies, was historically formed from two separate states: Somalia and Somaliland. Somaliland has British colonial roots, while the current troubled Somalia proper to which Mr. Ahmed of the Puntland region belongs is the former Italian Somalia. In fact, Somalia was still a colony when Somaliland became independent from Great Britain on June 26, 1960: Somalia became independent on July 1, 1960.
Therefore, it is a profound oversimplification to confound Somalia with Somaliland or the Old Somali Republic which Somalia and the State of Somaliland formed in 1960 with either of the former. Today, what we have is a breakup of the Somali Republic into Somalia proper and Somaliland, the very component parts that formed it in 1960. Mr. Ahmed makes no distinction between the problems that led to the definitive breakup of the Somali Republic in 1991 and the problems that beset Somalia proper now such as the prolonged instability and civil war.
The causes of the breakup of the Somali Republic are complex but chief among them was an internal colonial system imposed on Somaliland by the Somalia regimes, a virtual underdevelopment of Somaliland despite the fact the economy of Somaliland provided more than 85% of export revenues, a 10-year scorched earth war against the people of Somaliland from 1980 to 1990, massive massacres in Somaliland and the total destruction of the main Somaliland cities in 1988. As you well know, the consequences of that disastrous relationship with Somalia led inexorably the people of Somaliland to reinstate their statehood within the former frontiers of the State of Somaliland, as inherited, before that, from the ex-British Somaliland on 26 June 1960.
As for the causes of the problems that afflict Somalia proper, these have nothing to do with Somaliland and are a consequence of the fractured nature of internal politics in Somalia proper after the fall of the Barre regime. However, instead of analyzing the causes that afflict his own country Somalia, and sharing with us his idea on resolving them, Mr. Ahmed went out of his way to lay claim to parts of Somaliland.
Notably, Mr. Ahmed mentioned, your Excellencies, that his claim is based on an “indisputable fact based on blood [ties].” He also went on to say that his position is based on “history and the clan boundaries that preceded the European colonization of Somalia.” Unfortunately, however, Mr. Ahmed is not only misreading the region’s history on purpose but he is deliberately attacking the principle of the inviolability of colonial frontiers enshrined in the OAU charter. As is well known, the African state system is
not based on ethnicities but on the previous colonial states and their frontiers, and in that regard, Somalia and Somaliland are no exception. We also all know what is involved here is a hallowed principle which all African states diligently ascribe to. It is clear then that Mr. Ahmed’s claim to some parts of Somaliland, because some of the residents of Sool, parts of Sanaag and the district of Buhodle have “blood ties” with him, has no historical and practical basis in Africa.
In short, Mr. Ahmed does not seem to have grasped well that the African state, like the rest of the third world, is a colonial product. Nor does he show any genuine understanding of the idea that the African colonial boundaries are sacred under the charter of the Organization of African Unity. Instead, Mr. Ahmed seemed to be troubled by the fact that the Somaliland territorial boundary exactly corresponds with its colonial borders. So he writes in his letter that, “The regions of Sool, Sanaag and the District of Buhodle are an integral and inseparable part of the State of Puntland, Somalia.” But how could this be possible since a) Mr. Ahmed himself acknowledged that these regions were historically a part of Somaliland and b) there had never been a state called Puntland before in the Horn of Africa!
Finally, Mr. Ahmed also misunderstood the actual concept of power in the African context. Power, according to its classical definition everywhere, is “a situational consideration” which can be defined as the “capability of achieving a goal.” Additionally, in Africa, as elsewhere, the configuration of power is important in regard to its level, distribution, basis and use. However, in Somalia today, distribution of power is an extremely confusing
case. For example, there are now myriad patrimonial power centers from Kismayu to Mogadishu to Garowe, where Mr. Ahmed is based. But these centers are fragmented to the point that some politically misinformed leaders of the area such as Mr. Ahmed think that they could correspond with the world leaders as their counter-parts. Therefore, Mr. Ahmed needs to be told that Puntland is not a state and, if he wants to claim state powers in that part of the Somalia territories, he needs to make deals with the other patrimonial centers of power such as Mogadishu because that is his region has always been part of Somalia, before and after independence.
Moreover, Mr. Ahmed stated that an “Act of Union” in 1960 between Somalia and Somaliland had blurred the distinctions between the two states. However, he failed to mention that the plebiscite which was to ratify the “union” was rejected by the people of Somaliland in 1961. Furthermore, the Somali Republic which was supposed to be the embodiment of the “union” was dismantled soon after when the politicians of Somalia proper started using the name of Somalia instead of that of the Somali Republic in all international arenas including the UN in order to erase the fact of the “unconstitutional union” and illegitimate absorption of Somaliland into Somalia. In all evidence, therefore, the preceding argument makes the republic of Somaliland, your Excellencies, a de facto reality which is based on African history and precedent.
May we also recall that the people of Somaliland are soon heading to the polling stations in their country in order to ratify the constitution of their reclaimed state. We, therefore, hope that the international community would extend helping hands to the people of Somaliland at this point in their history.
Sincerely,
The Somaliland Forum
SOMALILAND FORUM
Background:
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