Somalia's Last Foreign Minister Warns Somaliland on Secession

oakes, Greg.

January 20 , 2008

Editorial Note:

Ahmed Mohamed Adan (Qaybe), a career Somali diplomat and politician and the last Minister of Foreign Affairs of Barre's government, warns Somaliland on Secession. WardheerNews would like to share with its readers this old article from Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in May 31 1994. In that article Mr. Qaybe articulated explicit refutations to the rationale behind the secession quest of some segments of the population of the North of Somalia. Qaybe stoutly argues that there are neither legal nor moral justifications for the unilateral secession of Somaliland from the rest of the nation. WardheerNews would like to encourage and solicit reader's comments on both sides of the debate.

Somalia's Last Foreign Minister Warns Somaliland on Secession

In the wake of U.S. and other international troop withdrawals, Somalia faces even more problems than the absence of central government, endemic clan rivalries, civil strife and the lingering specter of food shortages. There is also the prospect of a formal breakup of Somalia into two separate nations based upon the former colonial boundaries between Italian-occupied Somalia and British Somaliland.
In May 1991, leaders of the Somali National Movement, a political party dominated by the Isaaq clan, unilaterally declared an independent Republic of Somaliland in northwestern Somalia. Its self-proclaimed borders correspond exactly with those of the former protectorate of British Somaliland before its incorporation into Somalia 34 years ago.
The self-styled Somaliland government of President Mohammed Ibrahim Egal has yet to be recognized by any foreign power, but the secessionists are taking advantage of Somalia's continuing instability to press their claim to independence. It raises perplexing questions of self-determination, territorial integrity, national sovereignty and the role of the international community in helping Somalia rise from the ashes of war and famine.
One of the most prominent opponents of secession is Ahmed Mohammed Adan, a Somali diplomat and statesman who himself hails from the former British Somaliland but is not a member of the Isaaq clan. During his career in the Somali diplomatic service, which began with independence in 1960, Adan served as ambassador to the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Nations. He was serving as Somalia's foreign minister when the 1991 overthrow of former President Mohammed Siad Barre plunged the country into its current state of chaos.
Now Adan is affiliated with the United Somali Party and serves on a popularly elected council which oversees regional affairs for the northern Sol and Sanaag areas, within the British Somaliland boundaries, pending the re- establishment of a government in Mogadishu. Currently a resident of the United Arab Emirates, Adan spoke to the Washington Report during a recent U.S. visit to discuss the secession issue with American and U.N. officials.Continued