Update:

Six killed in clash over land in Somaliland

HARGEYSA, 6 Feb 2006 (IRIN) – At least six people were killed and more than 30 injured when rival Somali clans clashed over land on the outskirts of Hargeysa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland.

The fighting, which erupted on Saturday, pitted the Arab sub-clan against the Eidagale, both of whom live in Dumbuluq estate. Residents said it started over the disputed construction of a building.

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Update:

Parliament will meet in Baidoa, confirms president

GALKAYO, 14 Feb 2006 (IRIN) – Somalia’s top leaders have confirmed that the country’s transitional parliament will hold its first joint meeting on Somali soil in the south-central town of Baidoa, 240 km southwest of the capital, Mogadishu, on 26 February.

Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed told reporters on Monday that he had agreed with Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi and parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden that the parliament would meet as planned.

The president held a three-day, closed-door meeting with he prime minister and the speaker in Galkayo town, in the self-declared semiautonomous region of Puntland. The speaker was accompanied by Public Affairs Minister Osman Ali Ato and Yemeni ambassador to Somalia Ahmed Omar, among others.

“I called this meeting after I realised we doubted each other after the [5 January, Aden] pact and the decision we reached in Nairobi [to allow parliament to convene at Baidoa],” President Yusuf said.

The pact, signed by the president and speaker in the Yemeni city of Aden, called on “the members of the parliament and government to put aside their fruitless squabbles and differences, urging them to unite, placing the supreme interest of the nation above other interests”.

“Our other aim is to eradicate doubt before the first parliamentary session starts and sort out differences between us. We all agreed on common things, and this is a historic agreement,” Yusuf added.

The three-day meeting in Yemen between agreed to convene the first session of parliament inside Somalia within 30 days.

On Monday, the speaker told reporters that the president, the prime minister and himself had agreed to work towards promoting better understanding between members of the parliament.

Gedi, in a brief address to reporters, said he backed the decision reached by the president and speaker and urged all other Somali leaders to support them in their course of restoring governance in Somalia.

In January, the speaker and the president first announced the Baidoa meeting in Nairobi. Gedi did not attend the announcement, as he had already left the Kenyan capital for Jowhar, the temporary base of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Observers said he had been unhappy about the decision – an indication of continuing rifts within the TFG.

Ever since the TFG moved in June 2005 to Somalia from Kenya, it has remained divided over two key issues: the deployment of peacekeepers from neighbouring countries and the location of the seat of government.

Yusuf, Gedi and their supporters are based in Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu, because they consider the capital unsafe. Other MPs, led by the speaker, are in Mogadishu.

update:

Fighting rocks Somalia’s capital

Heavy fighting has again flared in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, after 10 people were killed on Saturday.

A BBC correspondent in the city says at least 10 people have gone to hospital after rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns were fired.

The fighting pits a new group, the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, against the Islamic Courts’ militia.

Peace talks are due next week, aimed at restoring authority after 15 years.

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update:

Somali warlords start peace talks

The Somali capital, Mogadishu, is calm following four days of fighting between rival militias.

Local leaders, including traditional elders and the city mayor, met on Tuesday to discuss ceasefire plans.

More than 20 people died in the recent clashes, which were the most violent seen in the capital in several years.

Violence broke out when some militia leaders formed an alliance to fight supporters of unofficial Islamic Sharia courts that have emerged in Mogadishu.

Many of those killed were civilians hit by stray bullets.

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update

Calls for patriotism as MPs meet in Baidoa

NAIROBI-BAIDOA, 27 Feb 2006 (IRIN) – Somalia’s interim President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, has opened the first-ever session of parliament to be held inside the war-ravaged Horn of Africa country with a passionate appeal for patriotism.

“If we have any measure of patriotism, it is shameful enough for us to witness an era of Somalia’s decline which is not brought about by foreign assailants but by our collective indiscretion,” Yusuf said.

“Each one of us should choose between serving our citizens or go down in history as the leaders who failed to lead their people and promoted hostilities,” he told the legislators. “This is an opportunity we should seize to govern the people and the country.”

Some 205 of the 275 members of the Somali transitional parliament (MPs) are attending the session, which started on Sunday in Baidoa town, 240 km southwest of the capital, Mogadishu.

However, prominent Mogadishu-based faction leaders where absent, including Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aydid, commerce minister Muse Sudi Yalahow, national security minister Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, public works Minster Usman Ali Ato and reconstruction and resettlement minister Bare Hirale, who is based in Kismayo.

“They were delayed, but we expect them to be here before the week is over,” Isak Mohamed Nur, who is also the local MP for Baidoa, told IRIN on Monday.

Other sources said the powerful Mogadishu faction skipped the session due to tension in the city following heavy fighting last week between the Islamic courts and militias loyal to the faction leaders.

Baidoa was chosen to host the meeting because it was seen as a compromise venue, where the various Somali factions could meet.

Yusuf, along with Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi and their allies are based in Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu, while the speaker of parliament, Sharif Hassan Shaykh Adan, and other MPs are based in the capital.

Speaking during Sunday’s opening session, the speaker echoed the president’s sentiments and called upon fellow parliamentarians to work towards ending hostilities and promoting understanding and development.

“I urge my fellow brothers and sisters to end hostilities and eradicate doubts that exist between them,” Adan said. “The country and its people need you to salvage them from suffering. Our children lack better healthcare and education and it is we leaders who can turn things around.”

Gedi urged the MPs to commit themselves to promoting harmony.

“This is an opportunity to kick-start the stalled transitional federal government’s activities. We fought each other for long, we should forgive each other,” he said.

The UN special representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, said: “You have a choice that should be easy to make; either to allow anarchy and chaos to prevail in your country or to lead the Somali people towards reconciliation and reconstruction, peace and prosperity.”

It provides the hope that Somalia might start to emerge from its current state of virtual anarchy

The state of “virtual anarchy” where Somalia is starting to heal itself, and doing better for itself with no government than it did with a government.

But hey the governments of the world can’t have the last few years of semi-regular peace caused by that “virtual Anarchy” around to show the rest of the world that a state/country where anarchy exists, and there is no government, can do just fine if left alone. Good thing there are some power hungry fucks who are determined to impose a government on Somalia, regardless of the violence it will cause. Can’t let that peace shit get in the way of power over other people.

Most of the recent violence in Somalia has been caused because of the prospect that the weak-to-invisible transitional government in Mogadishu will become a real government with actual power

National Geographic on Somalia

Breakaway State Has Achieved Peace, Stability, Democracy

The East African (Nairobi)

Fred Oluoch

It’s not without justification that the breakaway republic of Somaliland is seeking international recognition and refusing to rejoin the Transitional National Government in Somalia.

While the government of Abdullahi Yusuf is still looking for a suitable capital, Somaliland has been holding regular parliamentary and presidential elections, albeit without the international community paying much attention.

Since the disintegration of Somalia provoked by the collapse of the Siad Barre administration in early 1991, leading to the breaking away of Somaliland into a self-declared independent republic, there has been an accelerated process of state building.

Somaliland has a constitution that emanated from grassroots consultations and was sealed in a referendum held in 2003; the constitution serves as the basic law in Somaliland and enjoys respect from politicians. The constitution provides for the relevant arms of government and the effective separation of powers that go along with it.

Somaliland has territory as defined by the colonial borders inherited from British colonial rule on accession to independence in 1960. In the north, the country is bordered by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, adjoining the Indian Ocean; Puntland State borders it on the east, while Ethiopia neighbours it on the west. To the northwest, Somaliland is bordered by Djibouti.

Somaliland has a population that is estimated by local sources at 3.5 million resident in the country and one million living in the diaspora, the majority of whom fled the civil war. The diaspora has been responsible for remitting much of the capital that is being used for rebuilding the country; most of them live in Europe and the US.

The Somali language is spoken throughout the country, while English and Arabic are also used in official and business transactions. It is not unusual to encounter Somalis who can speak Kiswahili and Italian.

Somaliland has only declared its own independence after “reclaiming it from the collapsed union,” according to the country’s leadership. But the international community has not recognised that independence so far. However, there is a standing army with a mandate to defend the independence and territorial integrity of Somaliland.

The country has achieved peace and stability through a home-grown disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration process and internally driven democratisation, creating a real economic potential, based on its surface, sub-surface and maritime resources.

Somaliland and Somalia entered into a “Union” in July 1960, based on a shared ambition among the Somalis to build a “Greater Somalia,” which was to incorporate all the Somali communities in the Horn of Africa. In the course of time, the union failed.

The legacy of the abortive union and the resulting civil war was physical and social dislocation.

EGJ

here’s an interesting take on the subject:

Somalia re-invents itself

by Gerard Prunier

from Le Monde Diplomatic (English version)

basically the UN failed because it enforced a government-structure unto Somalia without looking at the structures already in place like the ‘Shir’ (meeting of clans)

update:

Somalia: UN-Backed Reconstruction Project Launches Largest Survey to Date

A United Nations-backed initiative to consult all sections and regions of Somalia in an effort to rebuild a war-torn country that has been without a functioning government for 15 years began its largest operation to date today as scores of experts with 7,200 questionnaires fanned out to the remotest corners of the Horn of Africa nation.

The Somali Joint Needs Assessment, led by the UN and World Bank, is a major technical analysis by 135 experts, 70 of them Somali, in consultation with a wide segment of Somali people, aimed at securing a clear picture of present reconstruction and development priorities in the faction-riven country.

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from szamko:

Death squads for oil on the Somalian frontier?

Will the Arabs dare to listen to Somaliland?

BY Bashir Goth*

Mar 27, 2006 — The Arab League has the habit of leaving issues to fester until such time when surgical intervention becomes necessary from foreign powers whose interests do not necessarily match those of the Arab world.

Examples are plenty but a few recent ones include Somalia, Southern Sudan and Darfur, Iraq and the Lebanese-Syrian issue. None of these issues has come out of the blue. All of them have been fermenting and escalating for years before they have reached the bursting point. All the time, the Arabs were using an ostrich mentality and burying their heads; hoping that they one day could raise their heads to find things fixed by some divine power. It is quite perplexing how Arabs love the status quo and use all their energy and resources to ensure that things stay as they are; they do this not only because they prefer stability and peace to the turbulence and commotion that often result from change but because they also fear that any change may rock the murky waters of Arab politics and expose the Arabs inability to deal with it.

Realpolitik also seems to elude the Arab focus, while sentimentalism and empty nationalistic slogans blur the clarity of their vision. A real example of the Arabs propensity for idealism and contempt for pragmatism is their famous Khartoum Resolution of 1967 which carried the three “nos” of Arab-Israel relations at that time: No peace with Israel, No recognition of Israel, No negotiations with Israel.

It took another decade for Egypt’s Anwar Sadat to cause a political Tsunami in Arab politics and inject the first dose of realipolitik into the Arab political lexicography. Other than the masterly strike of Sadat, all other Arab attempts of realpolitik came too late when the political landscape had already changed beyond recognition and they had to face the bitter reality of opting for face saving tactics.

Now as the Arabs hold their 18th summit in Khartoum on 28-29 March 2006, one issue that calls for a masterful realpolitik decision is that of the little known country of Somaliland. By just evoking the name, one can anticipate frowns on faces of Arab politicians.

So what is the issue of Somaliland and what does it need from the Arabs? To correct a hackneyed notion that will jump to the reader’s mind, I have to state at the outset that Somaliland is not Somalia, similarly as Lebanon is not Syria, or Jordan is not Palestine. I take these countries as an example because both Lebanon and Syria on the one hand and Jordan and Palestine on the other hand have each been one country at one time in their history. I may also cite failed unions as that of Egypt and Syria and Senegal and Gambia. Somaliland and Somalia are, therefore, not an exception.

The story started on 26 June 1960 when Somaliland gained its independence from the British. It was the first part of five Somali territories that emerged from foreign domination. The other four were French Somali Coast, present Djibouti, Italian Somalia, present Somalia, and the two Somali regions each in Ethiopia and Kenya, historically known as the Reserved Area and Northern Frontier Districts respectively. Somaliland was recognized by the United Nations, had its flag, its currency, its Executive and Judicial system, its police and military forces, its distinctive British governance and education and its internationally recognized borders.

Five days after its independence, however, Somaliland had given its sovereignty and made a voluntary union with Italian Somalia on its south, which had become independent on 1st July 1960. The name Somaliland had ceased to exist and the two merged parties called the new entity the Republic of Somalia. The quick and unbridled union was seen as a prelude to the liberation of all other parts of the Somali territory and bringing them under one flag. The five-cornered white star in the middle of the Somali blue flag denoted the Somali people’s unforgiving resolve to undo the colonial legacy and unite the Somali speaking pastoral nomads of the Horn of Africa under one roof of “Greater Somalia”.

For the next 30 years, the successive Somali governments thrived on inflaming the people’ sentiments in achieving the sacred Somali unity. The masses sang, danced, slept, woke up and dreamt of such sacred union. This irredentist policy of the Somali government depleted the country’s meager resources as every penny was channeled to liberation movements that wrecked havoc to neighboring countries and prevented the development of good neighborly and prosperous relations with them. It also portrayed Somalia as a sore thump in Africa, particularly as the African people were emerging from European colonialism and the prevailing mood was fostering brotherhood among African peoples, removing the colonial demarcation borders and creating the Unites States of Africa.

Although the dream of Greater Somalia was dealt with a serious blow when Djibouti decided to stay away from the union after gaining its independence on July 27, 1977, Somalia’s military dictator Siyad Barre still launched a lightening attach on Ethiopia in 1977 in attempt to liberate the Somali region of Ethiopia and force Djibouti back to the union fold. The initial gains of the Somali military was soon reversed, when the Soviet Union, the main supplier of military hardware to Somalia, switched sides and backed the Marxist Ethiopia regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam with heavy military equipment, logistical support and deployed thousands of Cuban forces to the battle ground. Somalia was defeated and tens of thousands of Somali-Ethiopian refugees crossed the border.

Somaliland suffered the most from this continued hostility to its neighboring Ethiopia as all military operations were carried out from its territory and Somaliland’s historical trade and economic links with Ethiopia were severed. In addition to this, the government established refugee camps in the north and resettled tens of thousands of them in major towns and farming areas. The people of the north resisted the government’s resettlement program and saw it as a calculated policy aimed at replacing the native population with new arrivals, the majority of them belonging to the President’s clans in Ethiopia. The government deployed heavily equipped military units to major towns in the north. Angered by the daily humiliation of their people, the northern born military brass took arms against what they saw as Southern domination of their country and a calculated policy of emptying their area of its original population.

Seeing his rule on the brink, Siyad Barre started playing a tribal card and appointed ruthless cronies of his clan as governors and military commanders in the north with the clear objective of bringing the northern insurgency to a crushing defeat. The military used all its might to subdue the northern opposition. They bombarded the civilian population, burned villages and farms and leveled major towns to the ground. Thousands of innocent civilians were killed and buried in mass graves, while almost two-third of the country’s 3.5 million population crossed the border to Ethiopia as refugees.

When Siyad Barre’s government collapsed in 1991, Somaliland people convened a conference on 18 May 1991 and made a unanimous decision to reclaim their sovereignty and declared their union with the South in 1960 as null and void.

Somaliland embarked on a grass roots reconciliation and reconstruction process. The refugees returned in the thousands to rebuild their homes and their lives and government institutions were put in place. Somaliland today boasts of having successfully held three democratic and internationally observed elections; municipal, presidential and parliamentary elections. It has its flag, a national currency, a bicameral parliament, an executive and judicial system, a vibrant and fast growing mercantile sector and unprecedented free press.

Unlike Somalia, the former Italian colony, where people remain hostage to the ongoing fratricide, mayhem, chaos and warlordism, Somaliland has remained an oasis of peace and stability where people abide by the rule of law. All this has been achieved without foreign intervention, international financial assistance and without regional or international conferences.

Somaliland today has become the focus of interest for its homegrown model based on modern democracy and traditional laws, thus prompting experts on African affairs to describe it as Africa’s Best Kept Secret and the Little Country That Could.

A report compiled by an African Union fact-finding mission to Somaliland and presented to the latest African summit in Khartoum early this year, strongly recommended the country’s recognition, saying “since its declaration of independence in 1991, Somaliland has been steadily laying the foundations of a democratic state, clothed with the relevant attributes of ’modern state.’ “

“The fact that the union between Somalia and Somaliland was never ratified and also malfunctioned when it went into action from 1960 to 1990, makes Somaliland’s search for recognition historically unique and self-justified in African political history. As such, the AU should find a special method of dealing with this outstanding case,” the report recommends, stating that Somaliland’s “case should not be linked to the notion of ‘opening a Pandora’s box’, or re-opening similar issues in other African countries.

Iqbal Jhazbhay, an Africa analyst at the University of South Africa, finds the report as part of the AU’s new pragmatism in dealing with the continent’s chronic issues: “The AU-sponsored peace deal in Sudan allows for a referendum, five years from now, on whether the south wants to go it alone. This could not have happened if it were business as usual. The AU now goes for results, and takes account of subjective facts and practical realities,” he said in a statement to the South African Mail & Guardian paper.

Two African heavyweights, South Africa and Nigeria, have even indicated readiness to recognize Somaliland, according to AU sources. There are also signs that the U.S. and the EU are looking at Somaliland with favorable eyes, particularly as the latest and 14th attempt to establish a central government in Somalia after 15 years of mayhem and lawlessness appears to be in shambles. Observers also point out that Washington has knowledge of significant offshore oil and gas deposits in Somaliland.

So, where do the Arabs stand on Somaliland’s issue? It is obvious that the Arab world led by Egypt is against the recognition of Somaliland. According to U.S. press reports, Egypt fears that an independent Somaliland could provide basing support to Israel and the U.S. at the mouth of the Red Sea. Egypt is also worried about the impact of the growing dependence of Ethiopia, Egypt’s traditional rival on the Nile waters, on Somaliland’s seaports. Somalilanders, therefore, accuse Egypt of being behind the eight-year old Saudi Arabian ban on the exports of Somaliland livestock to the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia slapped the ban on Horn of African livestock due to the outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in 1998. Although the disease had never been detected in Somaliland and repeated WHO reports gave it clean bill of health, Saudi Arabia has excluded Somaliland from the lifting of the ban, thus consolidating Somaliland’s suspicion of the ban being a political stance aimed at forcing it to give up its recognition quest.

This is why Somaliland will be absent from the agenda of the Khartoum summit, while Somalia, which according to Dr. I.M. Lewis, an authority on African history, is “a fantasy state which now only exists on paper … and in rhetoric…” will represent the peaceful, democratic and institutionalized Somaliland.

Having old links with the Arabs since biblical times, Somalilanders know that the Arabs cannot break the mold by suddenly being pragmatic and following the AU line, but as the Somali proverb says: “Barasho horteed, ha i nicin – don’t hate me before you know me”, Somaliland people would like to ask the Arabs just to try to know them before they hate them.

• A veteran African journalist, from Somaliland, who is currently based in Abu Dhabi. He regularly contributes to UAE, African and Some European journals. He is also the editor of the Somaliland online journal Awdalnews

update:

Ethiopia opens first transit clearance office in Somaliland

update:

Islamists And Warlords Fight for Mogadishu’