Darwishland: Death Knell for Secessionists in “Somaliland”

Darwishland: Death Knell for Secessionists in “Somaliland”
By Mohamed F. Yabarag
January 16, 2012

First and foremost the secessionist enclave called “Somaliland” has never been a legitimate state in the eyes of the international community. It exists only in the minds and hearts of its die-hard supporters whose SNM militia had singlehandedly fabricated this non-existent mirage entity in defiance of the will of all the other Somali clans in the northern regions, following the collapse of the last central government of Somalia. According to secessionists, “Somaliland’ was created in Burao by representatives of all clans from the former British Somaliland. This is a pure fantasy as this bogus state was concocted by a gun-toting clan militia which, alongside other armed Somali militias, violently brought down the last functioning central government of Somalia led by the late Mohamed Siyad Barre. In an atmosphere shrouded with secrecy, suspicion, fear and intimidation, the participants of the infamous Burao conference were simply coerced into signing a blank check for outright secession, which they did under duress. The fact that many elders had retracted their statement after returning home safe and sound speaks volumes about the validity and legitimacy of this so-called consensus agreement between former British Somaliland clans.

A little over twenty years have gone since the invention of this imaginary state, and yet no country in the whole world had bothered in the slightest to recognize “Somaliland” as an independent and sovereign country, including regional bodies such as IGAD and Arab league to which the mother country, Somalia, is a member. If a single valid attribute for statehood was evident in “Somaliland’s” otherwise fake dossier for a separate statehood, it would have been recognized by the international community decades ago in the same way as Kosovo, East Timor, Eretria and South Sudan were recognized.

In an interview with the Economist magazine in 1997, aware of the mammoth task facing his enclave, the late Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Igal had vainly pleaded the international community to grant “Somaliland” a status similar to that of the Palestinian Authority. This could have, at minimum, granted the secessionists in Hargeisa the legal basis to interact with the international community and mitigate their financial hardships caused by its self-imposed exile. This proposition was rejected by the international community with derision and the hunt for a separate statehood went on unabated. Despite the relentless push for an international recognition by the hardcore secessionists, the bottom line is that nobody wants to see the fragmentation, mutilation and the dismemberment of Somali state along tribal fiefdoms. The mere fact that secession lasted more than twenty years is purely down to lack of an alternative government in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, coupled with the inability of Somalis in the south and central Somalia to put their houses in good order. Had they done that, the secession would have folded ages ago.Continued