That Freedom Shall not Perish
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Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 63 April 5, 2003
Mistakes by Interior Minister to Cost UDUB Votes
Residents have told the Somaliland Times that the arrest on Thursday of 3 traditional elders who live in the area has caused a mass defection of supporters from UDUB in the 26 June and Koodbuur neighborhoods. The elders were picked up by the police in the morning but were released later in the evening.
Residents have blamed the Interior Minister for giving the order of arresting the 3 elders. The Minister has however denied involvement saying it was a police action apparently taken to forestall plans by the elders to disturb public order.
The 3 elders had clashed with the Minister of Interior a few days earlier in connection with a government policy on demarcation of regional administrative authorities in the northwestern coastal areas of Somaliland. The elders have accused the government of incorporating constituencies that traditionally belonged to the Hargeisa region into the Awdal region. They said the coastal localities of Eil-Sheikh and Abdi Geedi have been deliberately annexed to Borama in order to deprive Hargeisa of an access to the coast. In a statement to the press, more than 20 elders and Aqils have called on President Rayale "to act as president of the country and not the governor of Awdal."
Meanwhile, the newly elected Municipal council of Hargeisa has accused the Minister of Interior of embarking on a systematic interference in the affairs of the local government. "The Minister is unable to come to terms yet with the fact that the city has elected its council and that he has no authority over here anymore," said Jama Shabeel, a council member and spokesperson, on Thursday. The council stressed that they will not allow the incorporation of Hargeisa constituencies into other districts. "We understand that a number of Hargeisa Aqils have been arrested and we are going to investigate this matter very closely as the detainees belong to our constituency," the spokesman said.
It was not known yet why the government chose to antagonize leaders and inhabitants of Hargeisa city when presidential elections are only days away. But according to one rumor that has been in circulation since Wednesday, the government might have wanted to create enough tension in the capital and the coast as reasons for postponing the elections.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 63 April 5, 2003/Mohamed H. Dahir
Drug - The Double Edged Knife (Part 3)
Because people today, as well as their doctors, are so cavalier about consuming many different agents simultaneously without the awareness that they are in fact consuming "drugs" it is important to talk about interactions between these agents. By now everyone is probably aware of the potentially lethal interaction of alcohol and barbiturates or tranquilizers. In this case the simultaneous consumption of alcohol and a few tranquilizers can together produce an additive effect greater than either one alone. The result can be an unintentional suicide. They can just as easily happen between something in the diet or in environment. However, there are many reactions, which can be severe and at times life-threatening. Your doctor may not be aware of the various medications you are taking simultaneously, so you will have to guard against potentially dangerous combinations very carefully.
The ability of a drug to effect a cure or relieve a symptom is often a mystical process. Part of the process is a direct scientific cause-and-effect relationship, but much of medicine relies on your own body to do the job. Antibiotics, for example, often only slow down the invading bugs, allowing the body's own defense mechanism to take over and get a better hold on the little devils. In many cases, drugs can only provide symptomatic relief rather than actually produce a cure; they can decrease the intensity of diarrhea, peptic ulcer, or angina pectoris without actually curing the underlying problem. Thus your own body, and especially your psychological state, can profoundly modify the manner in which a drug exerts its curative powers. If a person wants to believe that the medicine he buys will help him go to sleep, it will. If someone thinks he is taking a powerful pain remedy, it will help alleviate his suffering. And if he has to pay through the nose for medication, the chances are that it will "work" that much better.
Although we have been taught to scorn anything "mental", it is important to recognize that the role of our heads play in our attitude to and recovery from disease is probably tremendous. There are countless examples from disabling infirmities under the guidance of a friendly radio preacher, or at various miracle cure locations. Even though modern medicine refutes such cures, it is often unable to determine the role of the placebo effect in its own practices. A visit to your white-coated doctor provides significant psychological support for any cure.
To be continues next week
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 63 April 5, 2003
The International Community and Somaliland's Presidential Elections
Obviously, leading democratic governments in the world and a number of countries in the region have opted in the past not to lend support to the democratic transformation that Somaliland has been undergoing over the years, lest their involvement be interpreted as tacit recognition of this country's proclamation of independence. This was a mistake.
The previous policy has not only deprived Somaliland of the opportunity to get international assistance for its efforts toward economic recovery after long years under dictatorship and war, but has also led many Somalilanders to question the seriousness of claims by certain world governments and institutions that peoples yearning for the institutionalization of peace, democracy and good governance may turn to them for help. Instead of helping, some members of the international community have actually sought to create problems of political, economic, security and diplomatic nature for Somaliland. The Saudi ban on the entry of Somaliland livestock animals into the Kingdom (other Somalis exported little if any to this market) is nothing other than a sort of punishment for Somalilanders for sticking to their right to self-determination. Because of this cruel stance by the international community, this country's emerging institutions in such non-political sectors as health, education and Sports have been denied external help or participation in internationally recognized forums or events. In the wake of the Arta conference, the international community, ironically, gave the mandate of Somaliland's representation in world bodies to the TNG, a staunchly anti-Somaliland group that controls a small segment of Mogadishu and many of whose members are wanted for war crimes committed against Somaliland civilians in the eighties.
Therefore, the decision of certain European countries to provide assistance to Somaliland's presidential elections is a welcome departure from the previous policy of passive engagement that the international community has pursued when dealing with this republic. This gesture will certainly have significant positive effects on the electoral process in Somaliland. The move will help remind Somalilanders that the world will be watching them with great interest when they cast their votes later this month in the country's first presidential elections.
Since Somalilanders have already had successful municipal elections last Dec 2002, they ought to do even better this time. The 3 political parties contesting the elections should play by the rules of the game. Stakeholders must bear in mind that any attempts to rig the elections will automatically kill this country's chances of eventually winning recognition from the international community and might also undermine its hard-won peace and stability. The stakes involved are much higher than winning the presidency. Success or failure will to a large extent depend on whether Somalilanders, particularly the incumbent government, observe the principles of fair and free elections.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 63 April 5, 2003
Taking the Tiger by the Tail: The National Electoral Commission and the Presidential Elections
I am looking forward to 14 April, in common with most people living in Somaliland. It will be the first time ever that I vote in my homeland. Having missed the December municipal elections, the prospect of taking part in a free and fair election to choose the next president of Somaliland will not only be a new experience, but given what it has taken us to get here, a deeply rewarding one. The people whose job it is to ensure that the elections fulfill our expectations are the six men and one woman who make up the National Electoral Commission (NEC). Their task is not an enviable one, given the unique circumstances of Somaliland.
The last presidential elections took place so long ago, in 1968, that more than 60% of the electorate has no memory of them. And for those who do remember, they recall the violence, the political tensions and the deeply flawed nature of the exercise which paved the way for a military coup d'?tat. Everyone agrees that this time, we must all play by different rules. But with everything so new, we are all learning, including, and especially, the Commission itself.
The Commission was established in December 2001 with a five-year mandate to prepare municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections. In December 2002, they organised countrywide local council elections contested by six political parties, a milestone in Somaliland's political journey. They were not perfect, with a lower than expected voter turn-out, allegations of vote-rigging in at least one region and complaints by the opposition parties that the government used national resources to further it's party interest, shortages of human and financial resources, transport and communication equipment.
Despite the lack of familiarity with voting, political parties and procedures, the calm and orderly manner in which the vote took place throughout the country came as a pleasant surprise to everyone. The Chairman of the Commission, Ahmed Haji Ali, known as Adami, paid a warm tribute to the voters. "The success of the election was due to the public. They policed themselves, stood for hours in the blazing sun and showed in every way possible their commitment to the electoral process. Our confidence in the voters is the most important legacy of those elections." Candidates from the three most successful parties-UDUB, KULMIYE and UCID-are now the contenders for the post of president.
There were other lessons as well that the NEC has been trying to address in the run-up to the presidential elections. One of the most important is their decision to bring in a chairman and a secretary for each of the polling stations who will not be a native of that area, so that local people cannot collude in electing a person of their choice. As the Chairman put it, "they are less likely to blow whistles to each other when outsiders are in charge." To better service urban areas, polling stations have been increased from 800-900. To pre-empt double voting, a penalty of one year in prison has been introduced for anyone caught casting their vote more than once. Women, in particular, are being targeted as their use of henna and hair dye on their fingers made it easier for them to multiply their votes. But now equipped with the facilities that detect this ruse, the NEC is looking to women's organizations to spread the message among women. And to give the police the time and flexibility to prepare its force adequately, the NEC has decided to transfer funds to the regional forces directly.
One of the major weaknesses of the local council elections was the quality of the representatives of the political parties, who were often young and inexperienced. Since then, the parties and the Commission have worked out an appropriate training programme. Each of the three parties will select 36 candidates who will be trained from 6-8 April and who will in turn train the 900 agents that each party will field on election day. The NEC will finance the full training programme which will take place in Erigavo, Burao, Borama and Hargeisa and which will cover all the regions.
Although local council members were selected by their parties, the ease with which people abandoned party loyalty to vote along clan lines disappointed many people. But where poverty and unemployment are widespread and the family and clan are the only reliable social security system, and where political parties are uncharted territory, it is not difficult to understand the choices people make. "After all", said one of the Commissioners, Shukri Haji Bandere, "the municipality is not going to bury you when you die." As the election draws closer, alliances are shifting rapidly as each party seeks to boost its electoral chances, bringing people of different clans together.
While the parties look to the Commission to organize a fair election, the Commission is asking the parties to use the forthcoming elections to help transform the political landscape of Somaliland. "They must not appear to be the property of an individual or a group", said the Chairman, "but be national in their composition, outlook and policies. Above all, they must show the people that they are responding to their needs." Confidence in political parties is the only hope of diluting the importance of political allegiance to clans. But even with goodwill, progress will be slow since economic insecurity limits people's choices.
Clashes and tension between Somaliland and Puntland have raised concerns about voting in parts of Las Anod and the El Afweyn area of eastern Sanaag, which border Puntland. The NEC knows that worries about safety will inhibit voters, keep out its own staff as well as observers, and make it easier to stuff ballot boxes. Commissioners have been sent to the areas to verify the situation, and voting will take place in those areas only upon their recommendation.
Accusations that UDUB, the party of the incumbent president, is misusing the resources of the government, prompted the NEC to issue guidelines which forbid the use of official cars for campaign purposes and the use of shared national symbols, such as the flag, as the logo of UDUB. After consultations with the Commissioner of Police, it was agreed that cars violating these rules would be taken to the headquarters of the traffic police until the slogans were removed. So far, seven cars have been taken in by the police. But only two days ago, the Vice-President traveled to Berbera with a huge fleet of government vehicles to campaign for UDUB. The Commission also criticized the recent appointment of new ministers of state without portfolio, dubbed "ballot-box ministers." The Commission recognizes that there is little it can do in reality. "We don't have investigators or people who can arrest the offenders", commented the Chairman, "and the institution that can monitor and control these wrongs doesn't exist." He added that he and his colleagues sought to prevent abuses "by the shovel", but that mistakes "by the teaspoon" were to be expected.
Lack of funds and transport continue to worry Commission staff. Most of their funds have come from the government, with contributions from Britain, Denmark and Switzerland. It is particularly unfortunate that the United Nations, which has spent millions of dollars on meetings that reinforce the power base of the warlords in Somalia, has given no support to the elections.
Looking beyond the April elections, establishing a census and the provision of identity cards or voter registration cards are essential in order to help Somaliland move forward politically. But most important of all is to come up with a well-thought out, and on-going, civic and voter education programme that aims to take politics to the people, and not merely to bring the people out for periodic elections. In this context, the Commission said they have begun discussions with the Ministry of Education about the teaching of civics in schools. They also want to train local council members, many of whom do not understand what is expected of them or how to do their job. And as Shukri Haji Bandere pointed out, local councils do not operate in a vacuum; their shortcomings cannot be corrected if the police force and judiciary do not function well.
Addressing these inter-connected issues is not a responsibility that lies only, or even principally, with the Commission or the government. Political parties and local NGOs should raise the political awareness of their constituents and help them to keep politicians to their election promises. It would be a huge mistake if voter education becomes, like so much else in Somaliland, a subject discussed in the same small groups meeting in workshops in the hotels of Hargeisa. The wider public, whose welfare has been ignored for the most part, will continue to be shut out, and the political process, on which our collective future depends, will make little progress.
The very fact that vigorous campaigning is taking place peacefully in Somaliland for presidential elections is a remarkable feat in itself, given recent history. That this is happening despite the lack of recognition reflects the go-it-alone approach that has marked Somaliland's emergence from the political ashes. Much rides on how well the NEC acquits itself of this important responsibility. We all wish them well, and must do our best to help them help us.
Rakiya A. Omaar is the director of the international human rights organisation, African Rights.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 63 April 5, 2003
Somaliland and The Crises In Puntland
Politicians in Somaliland are making political hay about the crisis in Punt land and its spillover into Somaliland sovereign territory. The intent is clear: connect the governing party UDUB, in some surreal way with the problems in Puntland and by extension suggest that UDUB and, clearly, President Rayyale, have bungled the issue. Showing Somali Landers another reason not to vote for UDUB and President Rayyale.
Obviously, Somali Landers are now quite used to the new phenomenon of "defections", where our politicians can defect to several parties, and indeed, their former principles and commitments simultaneously changing in the same record speed. Somali Landers, struggling to make ends meet every day, are watching these developments in "shock and awe" to use current international political nomenclature. To their morbid amusement, the opposition has taken to convince the electorate that those who have defected to their ranks have based their defections on high-minded and principled objections to the current purge within UDUB.
One important issue that has been a lightening rod for these defected politicians has been the issue of Puntland and the issue of General Ade Musa's presence in Hargeisa.
To wit, the issue that these defected politicians are calling the "art of the possible" is the entry into Somaliland of military forces loyal to General Ade Musa and Jama Ali Jama. These defected politicians argue a simple logic. They suggest that we should put our heads - not unlike ostriches - into the sand and bury our heads so that we shall not see nor hear any evil from Puntland. Secondly, they posit that since these factions do not recognize Somaliland, we should not pay any attention to their tribulations nor pay any heed to their comments. Our precious leaders in the opposition has even said that unless they recognize Somaliland neither succor nor aid should be extended to these factions fighting for the control of Puntland.
Pace dear reader and see below why the policy of the office of President, the minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minster of Internal Affairs is sound and accurate.
First, Somaliland stands for the rule of law, it is opposed to coup d'?tat and unlawful rebellion against a legitimate government. That is the basic law of Somaliland and it is also the basic law of its Foreign Affairs. It is also the basic law in its vigilant Internal Affairs policy. That said, Somaliland is also a state with all the accoutrements of a legitimate state. In short Somaliland must behave and act like a state and not like a clan.
The proponents of what has been called by the immediate former Minister of Education, that the state of Somaliland ought not to act in that old and tested, real politic policy of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is completely erroneous when it comes to states that are democratic.
It should be remembered that the term of office of that brutal nemesis to democracy, Abdillahi Yusuf - a warlord it should be remembered who is responsible for the assassination attempt at Las Anood - had expired as every child knows, and the supreme court of Puntland impeached Abdillahi Yusuf and his administration. The warlord subsequently refused and was chased out by popular insurrection by the people of Puntland only to return with hired guns to reign a new tyranny on the people of Puntland. This is why Gen Ade Musa is fighting the warlord Abdillahi Yusuf. Once we take out the clan calculus one understands the underlying issue. This is not a fight between two sub-clans, but between the forces of democracy and those of dictatorship.
What then should be the position of the State of Somaliland, any child can deduce from the above comments that we ought to support morally the popular aspirations of all Puntlanders - a state in neighboring country Somalia - for democracy and the rule of law. We gain a friend in Puntland, and by extension peaceful co-existence by supporting the forces of democracy there. We gain nothing if we appease the warlord Abdillahi Yusuf who sees elements of cowardice and lack of resolve in Somaliland by his repeated claims over our sovereign territory in every conference and setting that this particularly distasteful warlord speaks.
The Government of Somaliland's policy on this issue is sound and accurate, the militia in Somaliland should be disarmed and quartered with General Ade giving assurances of not using the territory of Somaliland as a place for military expedition to Puntland during this important election period. The Government of Somaliland must support an active opposition grouping to Abdillahi Yusuf because he poses a clear and imminent danger to Somaliland and its territorial integrity, whilst Gen. Ade Musa supports the aspirations of the people of Somaliland. The government of Somaliland has acted in a proper way by calming nerves and keeping the peace. Ruining the fabric of peace in our neighborhood is easy, mending it however is complicated.
The enemy of democracy and the rule of law is my enemy and the friend of the rule of law and democracy is my friend. Somaliland gains friends by this policy and does not appease a strident warlord.
The opposition ought to pay more attention to these concepts rather than making political hay over sound government policy.
A.M.Ali Hashi "Dhimbiil", Ottawa, Canada, Dallo57us@yahoo.com
AFP, Apr 19, 2003
Somaliland's Kahin elected president in country's first poll
HARGEISA, Somalia (AFP) - President Dahir Riyale Kahin of Somaliland was declared the winner of the country's first presidential poll since it broke away from Somalia 12 years ago, with a razor-thin margin of 80 votes, officials said. Kahin garnered 205,595 votes in last Monday's election against 205,515 for the opposition Hisbiga Kulmiye (Solidarity Party) candidate Ahmed Muhammad Silanyo, the deputy chairman of the electoral committee Abdullahi Jawan said.
The third candidate, Faisal Ali Warabe of the Justice and Restoration Party (UCID) garnered 77,433 of the total 498,639 votes cast during the Monday election.
Some 800,000 Somalilanders were eligible to vote out of a population of around three million.
Immediately after the announcement, supporters of Kahin's Unity of Democrats (UDUB) Party took to the streets of Hargeisa and other major towns in the breakaway republic to celebrate, raising both the party and the country's flags.
Minutes before the announcement of Kahin as the winner, his main opponent Silanyo said he would accept and abide by the electoral committee's verdict.
Warabe also accepted defeat and congratulated UDUB and its leader for winning the election.
The elections were contested by the ruling party and two opposition parties. Several organisations and countries, including South Africa, sent observers. "We observed that the voters were free to fill in and cast their votes free from any sign of intimidation or undue influence. The atmosphere at the polling stations appeared relaxed," declared a representative of the Addis Ababa-based Inter-Africa Group, a democracy advocacy which observed the election.
Somaliland, a former British protectorate, became independent on June 26, 1960, but days later united with the Italian colony in the south to form the republic of Somalia. It seceded from Somalia in May 1991, five months after late Somali strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown, plunging the east African country into anarchy. Somalia still has no central government and is wracked by clan warfare. Abdulkassim Salat Hassan, the president of the Transitional National Government (TNG), which only controls pockets of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, congratulated Somaliland on its peaceful election. Salat, who, like much of the international community, has not recognised Somaliland as an independent entity, said Somalia's northern region had made considerable progress in pacifying its fiefdom.
Kahin, 51, started his political career as governor of the western Awdal province, and subsequently served as Somaliland's ambassador to Djibouti, before late president Mohamed Ibrahim Egal appointed him vice president in February 1997. Trained in Russia as a security officer, Kahin is the first president to be elected popularly by the people. The country's first president Abdurahman Ali Tur and his successor, the late Egal, were both appointed by the Council of Elders. Kahin succeeded Egal on his death last May.
Reuters, April 19, 2003
Somaliland President Wins Election by a Whisker
HARGEISA: Somaliland's President Dahir Riyale Kahin was declared winner on Saturday of the first multi-party presidential elections in Somalia's breakaway enclave, beating his closest rival by just 80 votes."It's a historic success," Kahin told Reuters. "I thank the people not only for their vote, but also for holding it peacefully. "My government will give priority to development and will seek (international) recognition."
The enclave's National Electoral Commission said Kahin received 205,595 votes, 42.08 percent of the those cast, against 205,515 votes, 42.07 percent of the total, for his main challenger, Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo. The enclave, which has not been recognized internationally but is relatively stable, is hoping that holding a democratic election will win it international recognition.
The April 14 vote was monitored by international observers.
Previous presidents in Somaliland have been picked by parliament.
Kahin, of the United Democratic Party (UDUB), pledged to work jointly with the defeated opposition parties in developing the enclave of 3.5 million people.
Silanyo, of the Solidarity party (Kulmiye), a veteran politician who was once a minister in Barre's government, was not immediately available for comment.
The third candidate Faisal Ali Warabe, of the Justice and Development Party (UCID), received 77,433 votes.
Electoral Commission chairman Ahmad Haji Ali Adami urged the losing parties to accept the result: "There is no other asset that Somaliland can rely on than peace, and as such I would like every candidate, whether defeated or not, to respect the result of the elections."
An estimated 900,000 people had been expected to vote. It was not immediately clear how many had cast ballots.
Associated Press, Apr. 19, 2003/OSMAN HASSAN
Kahin Is Re-Elected in Somaliland
Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud Silanyo of the Kulmiye party received 205,515 votes, or 42.07 percent, officials said in the capital, Hargeisa.
Faysal Ali Warabeh of the U'id party finished third with 77,433 votes.
The supreme court is expected to confirm the results in 10 days.
Kahin assumed office in May after President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal died. Warabeh said he would cooperate with Kahin but it was unclear whether Silanyo would accept the results.
Earlier, Silanyo accused Kahin of manipulating the electoral process, including by allowing residents of neighboring Djibouti to vote.
All three candidates campaigned on the promise of obtaining international recognition for Somaliland, which broke away from the rest of Somalia in 1991 as the Horn of Africa nation descended into chaos after the ouster of longtime leader Mohamed Siad Barre.
The region of an estimated 2.5 million people has been relatively peaceful, compared with the rest of Somalia, where heavily armed clan-based factions control regional fiefdoms. More than a dozen peace conferences have failed to produce a comprehensive settlement.
Somaliland relies on revenues from the port of Berbera on the Gulf of Aden and on aid agencies for development and rehabilitation funds.
BBC News, 19 April, 2003, 16:30 GMT 17:30 UK
Somaliland leader wins poll
Somaliland's leader won the election by 80 votes
Results from presidential elections in the self-proclaimed state of Somaliland - the first since it broke away from Somalia 12 years ago - show a narrow win for the current leader, Dahir Riyale Kahin. The National Electoral Commission announced on Saturday that Mr Kahin had defeated his closest rival, Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo, by just 80 votes. The third candidate was Faisal Ali Warabe.
Commission chairman, Ahmad Haji Ali Adami, urged the losing parties to accept the result. "There is no other asset that Somaliland can rely on than peace and, as such, I would like every candidate, whether defeated or not, to respect the result of the elections," he said.
But it is not clear whether Mr Silanyo will accept the result. He has accused the president of exploiting his powers to manipulate the electoral process, including allowing residents of neighboring Djibouti into the country to vote.
Officials of Mr Kahin's party, the Unity of Democrats (UDUB), said he won most of the votes in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa, while the opposition took the majority in the western Burco area.
Independence claims
The relatively stable area of Somaliland announced its secession from Somalia in 1991, as the rest of the country descended into anarchy.
President Kahin took office last year, following the death of the long-standing leader of the breakaway republic, Mohamed Egal.
He has promised to introduce greater democracy and to fight for international recognition of Somaliland.
The vote, nearly a week ago, was reported to have been largely trouble-free and fair, although there was no voting in three eastern districts.
A South African team which monitored the voting, has said the process was peaceful, orderly and transparent.
Somaliland's administration relies on revenue generated at the port of Berbera on the Gulf of Aden, and depends heavily on aid agencies for development and rehabilitation funds.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 19, 2003\
Incumbent president wins Somaliland elections by a hair
The Somali electoral commission announced that the Udub party received 205,595 votes, or 42.08 per cent, a whisker above the vote won by the Kulmiye party led by Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud Silanyo, which obtained 205,515 votes - 42.07 per cent.
The Ucid party received 77,433 votes.
The announcement means that Kahin will remain president of the breakaway republic of Somaliland for the next five years, while his party's deputy chairman, Ahmed Yusuf Yasin, will become vice president.
The leader of the Ucid party, Faysal Ali Warabeh, announced he would cooperate with President Kahin and his administration, but it was not known whether the Kulmiye party leader, who was not seen in public on Saturday, would accept the results.
Before the official election results were announced, Silanyo's supporters were celebrating victory in the streets of the major city of Hargeysa. Before the election, Silanyo accused the government of electoral abuse and asked for the closure of the borders with Djibouti, claiming that people from that country were being allowed in to vote in the election. Silanyo also called for a stop of all travel within Somaliland so as to avoid multiple voting of individuals.
During the campaign, each of the three parties promised to deliver international recognition for Somaliland, which claimed independence from Somalia in 1991.
The eastern Sanag region and most of Sol and Buhodleh districts did not participate in the election due to territorial disputes between the autonomous administrations of Somaliland and Puntland in northern Somalia. dpa ow mga sc
BBC Worldwide Monitoring, April 18, 2003/SOURCE: Jamhuuriya web site, Hargeysa, in Somali 17 Apr 03
Somaliland's opposition presidential candidate Warabe to accept poll outcome
Speaking to Jamhuuriya last night, Mr Warabe said members of both opposition Kulmiye and ruling Udub parties had been involved in double voting, especially in Burco east of Hargeysa and that he will not do any follow up. "I see the two parties Kulmiye and Udub , said to be leading in the election, as parties that will not bring any change. I really have no hopes and I don't see if they can take the country anywhere" said Mr Warabe...
BBC Worldwide Monitoring, April 18, 2003/SOURCE: Radio Hargeysa in Somali 1700 gmt 18 Apr 03
Somaliland: Elections results to be announced 19 April - electoral commission
Agence France Presse, April 16, 2003
South African observers declare Somaliland vote transparent
"The counting of ballot papers was also rigorously transparent," the South African observers noted in their statement obtained by AFP. "We believe democracy was served by this exercise," the statement quoted mission leader Shannon Field as saying.
The statement added that the delegation was proud to have been associated with the people of Somaliland at "this historical juncture". "We wish the people of Somaliland the very best for their future and we are assured that they will build on their stability and democracy," the statement concluded.
The South African observer team toured all parts of the country where elections took place and were due to meet Somaliland Election Commission (SEC) team on Thursday befor leaving the country.
The announcement of the results of the presidential vote has been delayed until Friday due to flooding in the country.
Agence France Presse, April 16, 2003
Rain delays declaration of results of Somaliland presidential vote
Deputy Electoral Commissioner Shukri Haji Bandaro said delays had also been experienced in counting votes cast in Buroa, Somaliland's second city. One of the two opposition candidates, Ahmed Mohamud Silanyo, has already claimed he would emerge the winner. "I am not the electoral commission and I can't tell you figures at this time. But from the result I got from Kulmiye poll agents, it is clear we won," Silanyo said. Silanyo told AFP: "Unlawful arrest and intimidation against my supporters was rife in Hargeisa during the night."
Police dismissed this allegation.
Also Wednesday, armed police broke up a demonstration staged by some 200 people demanding the electoral commission pay them for their monitoring work during the election.
One witness said police fired live rounds over the heads of the protesters. Police were deployed outside the commission's offices in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa, an AFP journalist reported. "The protesters have no right to stone anybody and block the main highway. At least they should demand their rights in a peaceful manner and in a lawful way if they have not been paid," Interior Minister Ismail Aden told AFP at scene of the demonstration.
Police said nobody had been arrested.
Somaliland, once a British protectorate, unilaterally declared its independence from Somalia in 1991, five months after the overthrow of President Mohamed Siad Barre and more than 30 years after forging a union with the rest of the country.
But despite setting up all the institutions of statehood -- a government, civil service, flag and currency -- Somaliland remains unrecognised internationally.
Agence France Presse, April 16, 2003
Opposition leader calls for recognition of breakaway Somaliland
Political observers here believe that the UCID would emerge last of the three parties that contested Monday's presidential elections, Somaliland's first. "Whoever wins the election is recognized in the hearts and minds of our people, so please acknowledge our freedom," said Faisal Ali.
Faisal Ali pointed out that foreign countries "paid undeserved attention to the warring factions in Somalia by hosting more than a dozen high profile conferences, but they deny the right of recognition to Peaceful, democratic and self-governing Somalilanders."
BBC Monitoring Reports, April 16, 2003/Source: UN Integrated Regional Information Network, Nairobi, in English 16 Apr 03
SOMALILAND: RESULTS OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS EXPECTED ON 18 APRIL
Somaliland's incumbent president, Dahir Riyale Kahin of the ruling Udub Party faces a strong challenge from Ahmad Muhammad Silanyo of the Kulmiye Party and Faysal Ali Warabe of the Justice and Welfare Party. Both opposition contenders have expressed concern that the polls may not be free and fair....
BBC Monitoring Reports, April 16, 2003/Source: Radio Hargeysa in Somali 1700 gmt 16 Apr 03
CANADIAN OBSERVER HAILS SOMALILAND ELECTIONS
BBC Monitoring Reports, April 16, 2003/Source: Jamhuuriya web site, Hargeysa, in Somali 16 Apr 03
SOMALILAND: SOUTH AFRICAN OBSERVERS HAIL PRESIDENTIAL POLLS
Mr Shannon Field who was the chairman of the South African delegation, said people especially women were very keen to vote.
BBC Monitoring Reports, April 16, 2003/Source: Ayaamaha web site, Mogadishu, in Somali 16 Apr 03
SOMALILAND'S INCUMBENT PRESIDENT SAID LEADING IN EXIT POLLS
BBC Monitoring Reports, April 16, 2003/Source: Xog-Ogaal, Mogadishu, in Somali 16 Apr 03
PUNTLAND REPORTEDLY BARS SOMALILAND ELECTIONS IN DISPUTED REGIONS
BBC Monitoring Reports, April 16, 2003/Source: Jamhuuriya web site, Hargeysa, in Somali 16 Apr 03
"SOMALILAND ELECTIONS FAIRER THAN THE NIGERIAN ONE" - ELECTION OFFICIAL
Mr Adami thanked all politicians who contested in the elections, international observers, the local and international media and all those who have participated in the election of the president and the vice-president. He declined to state the number of ballot papers counted and who was leading and said the commission will announce preliminary results on 18 April.
SOMALIA: Somaliland preliminary results due on Friday
He said results from Hargeysa, the capital, were in, but "we are still waiting for the others. This has pushed back our timetable by at least two days", he said. Adami said the voting had been "peaceful and orderly with not a single report of violence". He added that voter turnout had been heavy, with most of the estimated one million or so Somalilanders eligible to vote, casting their ballots. He admitted, however, that there were problems in the disputed regions of Sool and Sanaag. He said voting was proceeding normally in some districts, but in others "it is not going very well because of security reasons".
The two regions fall geographically within Somaliland, but most of their clans are associated with the neighboring self-declared autonomous region of Puntland. The Puntland authorities had warned that they would not allow elections to go ahead in Sool and Sanaag.
Somaliland's incumbent president, Dahir Riyale Kahin of the UDUB party, faces a strong challenge from Ahmad Muhammad Silanyo of the Kulmiye Party and Faysal Ali Warabe of the Justice and Welfare Party. Both opposition contenders have expressed concern that the polls may not be free and fair.
Meanwhile, other sources in Hargeysa told IRIN that Kahin was ahead of his main opponent, Silanyo, in early results. Adami, however, dismissed this "as mere speculation". He stressed that "a fair picture of how the election is going will not be known for another two days".
Foreign observers from the UK, the US, South Africa, Ethiopia and the EU, who were monitoring the election, have not yet announced their verdict on the process.
BBC World Service, 15 April, 2003, 14:47 GMT 15:47 UK
Somaliland awaits poll result
Delegations from the EU and US are observing the polls
People in the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland have voted in their first multi-party presidential election. Almost one million voters were thought to have cast their ballots, hoping the election could boost its attempts to secure international recognition. Votes are now being counted after a largely peaceful poll, with a final result expected on Thursday.
The current leader of Somaliland, Dahir Riyaale Kahin, is being challenged by candidates from two opposition parties.
Mr Kahin took office last year, following the death of the long-standing leader of the breakaway republic, Mohamed Egal, in May.
The relatively stable area of Somaliland announced its secession from Somalia in 1991, as the rest of the country descended into anarchy. Mr Egal was elected president two years later, but the territory has never won international recognition.
The vote was reported to be largely trouble free and fair, but there was no voting in three eastern districts bordering neighbouring Puntland, where some violence was reported.
Main challenger
The three parties are known as:
the ruling UDUB, or United Peoples Party, the Kulmiye party, which translates bringing people together; the UCID or Welfare and Development Party.
The president's main challenger appears to be veteran Somali politician, Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo, of the Kulmiye party. He was a major player in the united Somalia Government of Siad Barre in the 1980s. But he left to lead the Somali National Movement which fought against Barre and ousted him from what is now called Somaliland.
During the campaign UCID candidate Feisal Ali Waraabe expressed doubt that the election would be free and fair.
Although Somaliland has yet to gain international recognition, delegations from the UK, the US, South Africa, Ethiopia and the European Union will observe the polls.
The Election Commission chairman has criticised the authorities for not handing over all the promised funds to supervise the polls. He has also expressed concern about a hostile atmosphere in the eastern areas.
CNN, April 15, 2003 Posted: 4:23 AM EDT (0823 GMT)
Thousands vote in Somaliland
HARGEISA, Somalia (AP) -- Thousands of voters cast ballots Monday in the first multiparty presidential election since the Somaliland republic broke away from Somalia in 1991 to escape the violence and chaos that has beset the rest of the nation.
The polls opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) and were to close at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) as voters chose between incumbent President Dahir Riyaleh Kahin and veteran politicians Faysal Ali Warabeh and Ahmed Mohamud Mohamed Silanyo.
The former British Somaliland, which joined with the Italian colony of Somalia in 1960 to form the Republic of Somalia, declared its independence in 1991 as civil war raged across much of the southern part of the country following the ouster of longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since then.
In contrast to much of southern Somalia, which is ruled by heavily armed, clan-based factions that have carved the country into a patchwork of fiefdoms, Somaliland, with an estimated population of 2.5 million, has enjoyed relative peace, although it has failed to gain international recognition.
All three candidates have pledged to ensure that the region remains stable, to create more jobs and to try to gain Somaliland the recognition many Somalilanders crave.
"I am happy that Somaliland is making a history; it is the first time that the Somaliland people are voting for a president of their own," Kahin said while casting his ballot.
Votes were to be counted at each of the 97 polling stations, and preliminary results will be released Friday, Ahmed Hajji Ali Adami, chairman of the electoral commission, said. The supreme court will announce the final results 10 days later.
AFP, April 15, 2003
Somalilanders Hold First Presidential Election
A presidential guard casts his vote at a polling place in Hargeisa.
Very early in the morning in the capital, Hargeisa, queues of several hundred people -- men and women -- lined up separately, waiting for the polls to open at 06:00 A.M. (0300 GMT). The electoral commission said it expected more than 800,000 people to vote Monday, out of a total population of around three million.
President Dahir Riyale Kahin of the Unity of Democrats (UDUB) Party, who hopes to be returned to the post he inherited from the late Mohamed Ibrahim Egal -- who had been appointed to the job by a council of elders -- voted at the civil service commission near the presidential palace at 06:30 A.M.
His two opponents in the race, Ahmed Muhammad Silanyo of the Hisbiga Kulmiye (Solidarity Party) and Faisal Ali Warabe of the Justice and Restoration Party (UCID), both voted at the same polling station within the first hour.
The crowd enthusiastically cheered the three candidates as they arrived, dipped the tips of their little fingers on their right hands into indelible ink and registered, before voting.
Kahin has pledged that he will spend most of his efforts to democratize Somaliland and to secure international recognition for the state, which unilaterally broke away from the rest of Somalia in 1991.
Although it enjoyed a few days of true independence in 1960, just before it united with Somalia proper shortly after ceasing to be a British colony, Somaliland remains unrecognized by the international community.
From the early 1990's, as Somalia degenerated into anarchy and the rule of the gun, Somaliland built up many of the institutions of statehood.
It adopted provisional Constitution in 1997, which was ratified by a referendum in May 2001 and, as well as a president and government, boasts a police force, penal code, currency and customs.
Yet it has no seat at the United Nations General Assembly and is unable to enter into bilateral or multilateral agreements with lenders. Its budget for this year is some 30 million dollars (28 million euros).
Only neighboring Ethiopia has a diplomatic presence in this country at the top of the Horn of Africa.
"My hope is that the international community will support this democratic progress," Kahin told AFP on the eve of polling day. "We should be praised for this wonderful thing we are doing. The international community should give us credit for this and recognize us," he said.
"If the election takes place peacefully Somaliland should gain the recognition of peace-loving countries. Our children will then get scholarships to go other countries," Asha Liban, a mother of six, told AFP near a polling station. "If there is peace and recognition, six of my children will be doctors, engineers and maybe prominent politicians," she added.
Votes will be counted at the polling booths when balloting ends.
Municipal elections last December drew 440,000 people to the polls. More than a million people voted in a 2001 referendum on the country's new Constitution.
A throng of observers and photographers and 32 international observers from 14 countries have arrived here to monitor the process. More than half of these observers are from South Africa, which currently chairs the African Union.
Source: Allafrica news, April 15, 2003/ Somaliland Times (Hargeisa)
Voting Progresses Well in Somaliland's First Multi-Party Elections
* Somaliland incumbent president and UDUB party Chairman, Dahir Rayale Kahin,
* Ahmed Mohamed Sillanyo, KULMIYE party boss and former leader of Somaliland resistance against dictator Siyad Barre's rule, and
* Faysal Ali Warabe, a returnee from the Diaspora who recently founded the UCID opposition party.
With one hour to go before the polling came to an end at 6:00 P.M., voting has reportedly gone peaceful at polling stations throughout the country.
Voting didn't take place in some parts of Sool region, including the provincial capital Las-Anod. In the Sanag region, five polling stations were not opened in time.
According to the National Commission Electoral Chairman, Ahmed Haji Ali, plans for holding election at these localities have been canceled at the last minute due to delay in forwarding the electoral material intended for polling stations there.
Teams of international observers are in Somaliland to scrutinize the polling. The largest observer mission has come from South Africa, the current chairman of the African Union. The delegation of South Africa consists of 12 people who represent various institutions in that country, including the South Africa Electoral Institute.
A mission led by Swedish Liberal party parliamentarian Birgitte Ohlosson has also arrived. Accompanying her are Peter Schuckink Kool and Hanad Mohamed Abdi, also from the Swedish Liberal party (Folk Partiet). Other delegates include a Canadian Parliamentarian, diplomats from the UK and USA as well as representatives of organizations in Ethiopia, Norway, Holland and a number of other countries. The process is also being observed by experts from the EU.
Local observers have predicted a hot contest between incumbent President Rayale and KULMIYE candidate Silanyo. Though being a sitting President may work in Mr. Rayale's favor, however the elections were expected to be a close race between him and his major opponent, Mr. Silanyo.
Rayale and his running mate Ahmed Yusuf Yassin were predicted to carry the votes in the two regions of Awdal and Sahil, their respective birth places while Silanyo was expected to emerge as top winner in his hometown Buroa, Togdheer.
There were also indications that people who have stayed undecided until the last minute might have increasingly voted for UCID's Faysal Ali Warabe.
Source: Voice of America, Washington, 14 Apr 2003, 16:26 UTC
An Analysis Of Elections In Somaliland
Ashenafi interview on Somaliland (MP3)
Ashenafi interview on
Somaliland elections (RealAudio)
A Somali-born analyst says today's presidential election in the breakaway republic of Somaliland represents yet more proof of stability in the self-declared republic.
Professor Said Samatar of Rutgers University says the election also sends a powerful message to the international community that, despite its fragility, Somaliland is capable of cleaning its house and maintaining itself. He says on the issue of recognition, he senses some flexibility on the part of the international community. He points to the presence of South African, West African and American observers at today's election.
Regarding the war in Iraq, Professor Samatar says Somaliland exhibits what he calls a split personality, a sense of islamic solidarity with the Iraqi people, coupled with a cautious approach not to upset the United States.
In Monday's elections, President Dahir Riyale Kahin faces a strong challenge from two opposition candidates: Ahmed Muhammad Silaanyo of the Kulmiye Party, and Faisal Ali Warabe of the Justice and Welfare Party. Mr. Kahin succeeded the long-standing leader of Somaliland, Mohamed Egal, after his death last May.
Somaliland, a former British protectorate, declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 after the collapse of the Siad Barre regime. The territory has yet to win any international recognition.
Professor Samatar spoke with English to Africa reporter Ashenafi Abedje.
BBC Monitoring International Reports, April 14, 2003/Source: Xog-Ogaal, Mogadishu, in Somali 13 Apr 03) BBC Monitoring
SOMALILAND: GOVERNMENT URGES FOREIGNERS TO STAY INDOORS ON ELECTION DAY
Agence France Presse, April 13, 2003 Sunday
Somaliland president confident of reelection in Monday poll
"Our unrecognised democracy, peace and stability is much better than those in many other African countries, but it is unfortunate that the international community has failed the people of Somaliland by denying them deserved recognition," Kahin said.
But the chairman of the main opposition Hisbiga Kulmiye (Solidarity Party) Ahmed Mohamud Silanyo maintained his party would prove to be the "winner of the hearts and mind of Somaliland people and will emerge victorious." "Riyale printed money for the election, nominated ministers without portfolio only for the current election and gave funds to popularize UDUB," Silanyo said, charging: "Monday's election would be free, but not fair." "There is a difference between free election and fairness. No person would be barred from voting, but the use of state funds for the elections undermined fairness," Silanyo said, a charge that was rejected by Kahin.
But Silanyo pledged that he would comply with the outcome of the elections, but quickly added that he would "not have vied for the presidency if he was not sure of victory."
A top official with the Justice and Restoration Party (UCID) said his party will rely heavily on non-corrupt and true Somalilanders who care about the well-being of their people to win the elections. "Those who look for money are not welcome at the UCID offices, people with dignity and integrity will vote for us," the party official told AFP.
All three political parties contesting the Somaliland presidency meanwhile assured supporters that they would never accept unity with war-torn Somalia, which has lacked an effective central government for well over a decade.
Somaliland gained independence from British colonial rule on June 26, 1960 and days later united with the Italian colony in the south to form the republic of Somalia.
Associated Press, APRIL 14, 2003 08:44:40 PM ]
Thousands vote in first Somali presidential polls
The former British Somaliland, which joined with the Italian colony of Somalia in 1960 to form the Republic of Somalia, declared its independence in 1991 as civil war raged across much of the southern part of the country following the ouster of longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
In contrast to much of southern Somalia, which is ruled by heavily armed, clan-based factions that have carved the country into a patchwork of fiefdoms, Somaliland, with an estimated population of 2.5 million, has enjoyed relative peace, although it has failed to gain international recognition.
All three candidates have pledged to ensure that the region remains stable, to create more jobs and to try to gain Somaliland the recognition many Somalilanders crave. "I am happy that Somaliland is making a history; it is the first time that the Somaliland people are voting for a president of their own," Kahin said while casting his ballot.
Votes were to be counted at each of the 97 polling stations, and preliminary results will be released Friday, Ahmed Hajji Ali Adami, chairman of the electoral commission, said. The supreme court will announce the final results 10 days later.
Source: Independent Online (Johansburg), April 14 2003 at 06:16AM
Voters of Somaliland go to polls full of hope
The governor of Hargeisa, the capital of the breakaway republic of Somaliland, Mohamud Amin Igeh, uses his cellular phone to deploy
police at all stations in Hargeisa.
Hargeisa - Somaliland has taken a further step down the democratic road with a presidential election that is expected to be closely fought but peaceful.
South Africa has the largest observer team for this event, which was due to happen on Monday.
Dahir Riyale Kahan is asking his largely nomadic people to return him to the office he assumed when President Mohamed Egal died at 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria in May.
The other contestants in the three-way contest are former guerrilla leader Ahmed Muhammad Silanyo, who fought the dictatorship of Mohammad Siad Barre, and Faisal Ali Warabe, one of the 200 000 who returned from the diaspora to rebuild the country Barre had reduced to rubble.
In terms of the new constitution endorsed by a 2001 referendum, the presidential race is restricted to candidates from the three parties that came out on top of municipal elections held in December.
This is designed to filter the effects of the clan system that has paralysed neighbouring Somalia, leaving it with a government that controls little more than a few blocks of the capital Mogadishu.
Having borne the brunt of Barre's military repression, Somaliland ended its 31-year union with Somalia soon after the dictator's fall in 1991. The country remains unrecognised by the international community and has rebuilt itself without international loans or aid.
The economy is based on livestock trade, remittances from the diaspora, and local taxes.
Somalilanders take pride in their self-sufficiency, and the one issue uniting all three parties is the rejection of any notion of reunifying with Somalia. "We wish them no harm, but we also wish them to leave us alone. We have forgiven the genocide of Barre but we have not forgotten," said Edna Adam, the only woman in Kahin's government.
Adam and other women have said they will want a greater share of governance whatever candidate is successful.
The minimum voting age is 16, and voters will have to be identified by village elders because they have no physical form of identification. - Independent Foreign Service
Source:http://jadedafrica.dekarabaw.com/, April 12, 2003
Election Fever
Electoral commision staff load ballot boxes on trucks in Hargeisa.
It's a weekend today, Friday. I had a meeting with youth groups who could only get together on Fridays. On the way to the meeting, the streets of Hargeisa were bustling. I've seen not only 2 groups of women clapping and singing, cars with speakers and stickers busily roaming the streets. Songs and chants of the two more active political parties were everywhere. People teasing and heckling each other, shouting Kulmiye! Kulmiye! the other group chanting Udub! Udub! This is election fever Somaliland style.
There are very few posters on the walls of buildings, posters are too expensive. What is noticeable however are cars with stickers, and flags with Green and Y sign for Udub, and the green and yellow flag for Kulmiye, and a green and white flaglets of UCID (pronounced with silent C) you would find in stores. Small offices of the three parties suddenly mushroomed, complete with billboards and their flag. Women are the most active campaigners, they come in groups with a small drum made of camel skin on hand, they would go from village to village campaigning, singing and clapping for their political party. On major roads one would find busses full of singing women, clapping women, women beating their camel drums.
Children enjoy the election fever too. We passed by this group of children and women from the Kulmiye party dancing and singing in the streets. It was 8:30 pm and the streets of Hargeisa are still alive with songs and jubilation. They have something to rejoice about, the 12 years of relative peace in the country brought them at this point.
Being a clan-based society, government positions usually were divided according to clans. It was the clan elders who meet and decide what position should go to what clan. Late last year, Somaliland held its first democratic elections after 33 years choosing the local government officials in the process screening the political parties that would participate in this year's presidential elections. That election was noted to be the most peaceful in the whole of Africa for the past 20 years.
While the South of Somalia are busy with the UN sponsored peace conferences trying to keep more than 300 warring clans and warlord headed groups into the peace negotiating table, Somaliland is silently building its country.
It is expected that like last elections, there would be long lines of people in polling stations. Nomads would go to the election areas to cast their votes, the urban based population would do the same. Some people treat Somaliland's political construction as an internal affair, simply because the country had been relentlessly refused international recognition. But the people of Somaliland are equally determined to prove to the world that they are a nation worthy of recognition and respect.
Unlike the UN staff here who were ordered to shy away from the polling stations, my Somali colleagues together with our expat staff members were told to BE in the election stations. A proposal, which we willingly accepted. Who wouldn't like to be a first hand witness to the making of a proud nation like Somaliland?
Agence France Presse, April 12, 2003
Somaliland's sole woman minister calls for greater emancipation
In her remarks at Honors Convocation, Somali development activist Edna Adan Ismail described her work in Somaliland, where she has fought for adequate health care for women and children and recently opened a maternity hospital. "? hope that this proves to this year? graduating class, and to all who have been blessed with an access to education, that with adequate training, good discipline, strong commitment and unwavering determination against all odds, that each one of you can have a profound impact in your chosen and different areas of specialization. If an old woman can do it, anybody can," Ismail said.
.Clark University, Worcester, MAHARGEISA: The only woman in the cabinet in Somaliland, a self-declared independent state in northwest Somalia, said Saturday that women deserved a greater share of power there. "I don't think women anywhere are satisfied with their share of governance," Edna Adam, the minister for social affairs and family development, told a group of international observers in Somaliland to monitor Monday's presidential election. "In Somaliland we're making progress with my symbolic presence in the government and we have recently appointed the first woman director general," said Adam, the widow of late president Mohamed Egal. "We are half of the population here and woman have always had the vote in Somaliland. We have provided the majority of the votes for candidates," she said. "Nevertheless we have not been consulted enough and we are sometimes excluded unnecessarily," she added, pointing out that there was only one woman on the six-person independent electoral commission.
"Seven of Somaliland's 900 polling station will be headed by women on Monday, and that has never happened before. We welcome the little progress made and remain determined to fight for our rights," said Adam.
Using her personal resources and international funds Adam, a midwife by training, has built and runs the foremost maternity hospital here.
Khadra Kaliil, representing the ruling Democratic Movement for a United Community (UDUB), said women would expect a bigger slice of government if President Daahir Rayale Kahin, was returned to the office he took up on Egal's death. "We have already said we want more women in cabinet," she said.
Ahmed Abdillahi Awale of the Welfare and Justice Party (UCID) that is fielding outsider Faisal Ali Warabi as presidential candidate said they were in favour of affirmative action for Somaliland women. "We would amend the constitution to get more participation by women in all branches of the government. We would practise postitive discrimination," he said.
Mohamed Jama, speaking for candidate Ahmed Silanyo, said one of the two vice-president's posts in their Junction Party (Kulmiye) was filled by a woman.
Women demanded a third of the party agents posts in the cities and got them, he said.
Women are the principal wage earners in 60 percent of Somaliland homes. Most of the voters on Monday will be women, while the men sit around chewing qat, he said referring to the mild narcotic leaf widely consumed in the Horn of Africa. Anyone who want to attain power and keep it in Somaliland must toe the women's line, said Awale, whose party ran a close second to UDUB in the municipal elections last December.
BBC Monitoring International Reports, April 11, 2003/ Source: Radio Hargeysa in Somali 1700 gmt 11 Apr 03
BRITISH ENVOYS, ELECTION OBSERVERS ARRIVE IN SOMALILAND
The British envoy in charge of Somaliland and Somalia, who is based in Nairobi, name indistinct and (Richard Owen) from the British embassy in Addis Ababa, arrived at Hargeysa's Egal Airport today. Some observers from South Africa and the Inter-Africa Group also arrived at Egal International Airport. They were accompanied by Somaliland's representative to South Africa, Mr Iqbal Jhazbhay. The officials arrived in Somaliland to monitor the the 14 April elections in Somaliland. The officials were received at the Hargeysa airport by the minister of information, Abdullahi Muhammad Du'ale, and the foreign affairs minister, Muhammad Si'id Ges, and the electoral commission chairman, Ahmad Haji Ali Adami.
Agence France Presse, April 11, 2003
Presidential poll in Somaliland on Monday
Hargeisa: Voters in the breakaway republic of Somaliland in northwest Somalia go to the polls on Monday to elect a fourth president since its unilateral secession from the rest of the country in 1991. "We are moving from a traditional form of government to a modern democratic state. The presidential elections are a milestone on this route," Foreign Minister Mohamed Saeed Gees told AFP on Friday. Monday's poll will be Somaliland's first presidential election since 1969. Since it broke away from the troubled Horn of Africa nation in 1991, previous heads of state have been appointed by a council of elders.
Incumbent president Dahir Riyale Kahin of the ruling Unity of Democrats (UDUB) party will be challenged by opposition politicians Ahmed Mohamud "Silanyo" of the Hisbiga Kulmiye (Solidarity Party) and Faisal Ali "Warabe" of the the Party of Justice and Restoration, known by its Somali acronym, UCID.
Somaliland's electoral law allows the existence of only three political parties, which become legal by virtue of holding a majority of local council seats in its six regions.
A vice president will also be elected on Monday.
A former British protectorate, Somaliland united with the Italian colony in the south in 1960 to form the independent Republic of Somalia.
But it unilaterally broke away from the rest of Somalia in 1991, five months after the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
As Somalia proper degenerated into anarchy and the rule of the gun -- it still lacks any semblance of a working central government -- Somaliland, ironically, given its lack of international recognition, built up many of the institutions of statehood.
It adopted povisional Constitution in 1997, which was ratified by a referendum in May 2001.
Somaliland, which has a population of about three million, now boasts a president, government, police force, penal code, currency and customs. Yet it has no seat at the United Nations general assembly and is unable to enter into bilateral or multilateral agreements with lenders. Its budget for this year is some 30 million dollars (28 million euros).
Faction leaders in Somalia proper often call upon Somaliland's authoritites to renounce their secession.
Somaliland's council of elders chose Kahin as the president in May last year following the death of his predecessor, Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, in a South African hospital.
A member of the Gadabursi clan which is predominant in western Somaliland, Kahin had been Egal's vice president since 1997.
Silanyo held ministerial positions in both in Barre's regime and in Somaliland's government.
Warabe was one of the founders of the Somali National Movement (SNM), one of several rebel groups that fought for a decade to topple Barre's regime. Silanyo was at one time SNM's chairman.
Silanyo and Warabe are both members of the Issak clan, the dominant group in Somaliland.
The electoral commission has declared Saturday the last day of campaigning.
More police have been deployed in the capital, Hargeisa and other areas to beef up security in the run up to the poll.
The European Union and other donors funded a civic education campaign last year. Britain has donated 125,000 pounds (182,000 euros) for the presidential election.
Observer missions from Britain, the US, Denmark, Canada, Ethiopia, Norway and South Africa will be in Somaliland for the polls.
BBC Monitoring International Reports, April 10, 2003/Source: Xog-Ogaal, Mogadishu, in Somali 9 Apr 03
SOMALILAND: ETHIOPIA SAID SENDING ELECTION OBSERVERS
Africa News, April 10, 2003/UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
Somalia; Puntland Warns of Drought
He said the Puntland administration had dispatched fuel to some of the most seriously affected districts in Sanaag to help in the trucking of water. Abdishakur told IRIN that the Puntland authorities "do not have the wherewithal" to deal with the situation, and they had called on international aid agencies to intervene before the situation deteriorated even further. He said the first priority was to deliver water to affected areas and to distribute food to those who had lost their livestock. "Some of the population have reached the stage where they are no longer able to cope," he warned. He appealed to the international donor community to come to the aid of the people of Puntland "before it is too late".
Source: UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, April 9, 2003
Somaliland Warns of Water And Food Shortages
The livelihood of most of the population of Somaliland, like the rest of Somalia, revolves around livestock, and "livestock has already started dying", he said. He added that the Somaliland administration was calling on the international community to assist before the situation turned into a catastrophe. Trucking water to the most affected areas should be a priority, Awale said. Water points which had fallen into disrepair needed to be rehabilitated quickly, while those still functioning needed pumps to enable them operate, he stressed. Awale also said that food distribution in the most seriously-affected areas should be undertaken "as a matter of urgency".
Source: Somaliland net, Apr 07 2003
SOMAID/CURE Concern benefits three Somaliland hospitals
"Mr. William Douglas Jackson, founder and President/CEO of Project CURE, came to Somaliland on a needs assessment visit an February 2001, following a proposal we submitted him and few follow-up meetings we subsequently held on matter. Upon return to the States, Mr Jackson did not rest for a moment until he put together these supplies", Mr. Egal said.
Before Mr. Jackson, himself, made that first trip to Somaliland in the Company of SOMAID officers, who introduced him to the sort of shoe-string services the hospitals were providing patients, it was not easy, Mr. Egal said, to convince anybody not bred and brought up in these climes to conjure up on his own - health conditions on the ground as they existed here in Somaliland.
"That 2 of 3 containers of supplies destined for, initially, a hospital each in, respectively, Hargeisa, Berbera and Burao, have safely reached the beneficiaries - with the other soon to follow - more than make up for any of the sleepless nights CURE and SOMAID officers spent in putting this first consignment together", Mr. Egal told The Republican on Tuesday, shortly before he flew back to his adopted home in Denver, Colorado, of the United States.
Egal, briefing members of the governing council of the newly formed association for Somaliland Journalists - SOLJA - the week before, said a great many of the migrant Somalilander communities would have taken more visible steps to contribute to the development and reconstruction of Somaliland if the local media took upon itself to assume the role of sentinel over deliveries and how they are exploited in practice.
Egal - as are many of his more enlightened compatriots in the Diaspora - was, obviously, a little troubled by stories of diverted materials and assistance packages that, inevitably, bombard the good Samaritan in developing regions. The fact is, though, the good use one puts to any assistance given him - even if it was partially delivered him - is something to thank God for.
As attested to by grateful officials at the three beneficiary hospitals, SOMAID has more than fulfilled the role it played in canvassing for and delivery of the supplies shown in its shipment manifesto (see table 1 and 2 for more details).
Minister for Health and Labour, Dr. Hassan Ismail Yussuf, himself, was present, at the Hargeisa Group Hospital take-over of supplies from SOMAID on Friday, March 28.
Besides items shown in tables 1 and 2, materials and health/treatment aids and accessories below the unit costs depicted were most abundantly evident among packages delivered to each hospital. Gloves, dressings, surgical masks, vacutainer tubes, birthing kits, splints, braces, casting supplies, patient restraints, respiratory supplies, oxygen masks, anasthesia supplies, cardiology supplies, wound care kits, urinary supplies - medical textbooks. medical journals, optic supplies, office supplies, sterile surgical gowns, urology surgery packs and supplies, ENT surgery packs and supplies, cardio - thoracic packs and supplies, nasal gastric and gastric large tubes.
BBC Monitoring International Reports, April 8, 2003/Source: Xog-Ogaal, Mogadishu, in Somali 8 Apr 03
VISITING SOMALILAND VICE-PRESIDENT TO MEET PUNTLAND RIVAL LEADER SHORTLY
BBC Worldwide Monitoring, April 8, 2003/UN Integrated Regional Information Network, Nairobi, in English 8 Apr 03
Somaliland, Puntland wrangle over disputed regions ahead 14 April polls
"The people of these regions have decided that their destiny is with Puntland and not with Somaliland," he added. He warned that any attempt to bring election materials to Sool and Sanaag would be regarded as "a hostile act against Puntland". However, Somaliland Information Minister Abdullahi Muhammad Du'ale told IRIN that elections would take place as planned in the two regions and that ballot boxes would be sent there. "Sool and Sanaag have been part and parcel of Somaliland and will remain so," he stressed. Somaliland's presidential elections are due on 14 April.
Source: Somaliland net, Apr 06 2003/Jamuuriya EDT EUR.
Hargeisa short of water swims in flood of banknotes
Queuing jerry cans and up-turned donkey water-carts line and cluster at and around dry water kiosks. Parched throats listen to optimistic platitudes.
Hoarse whispers hiss to and forth among despairing mothers.
Unrelenting enterprising water vendors ask for the skies - and in cash upfront - when one is found.
Harassed family bread - winners cry in exasperation, impotent against the ferocious onslaught of distraught wives, who have to find water for wailing babies.
This has been a typical scene in the capital for the past several months. The siege under which an acute shortage of water put the city started mildly enough at the end of 2002, only to tighten the noose gradually around resident's throats to a stage where an irritating but tolerable has become a life- draining vice slowly dissipating at semblance of patience.
Only on Sunday, the week before (March 30), the President, Dahir Rayaleh Kahin, addressing a join session of the bi-cameral Parliament spoke of securing international assistance for the development of city water but said nothing of how people should cope with the current threats of shortage, or what the administration would do about it. in the meantime.
The very existence of Somalilanders, as a whole, is presently inching forward towards a nonnegotiable precipice of despair and deprivation.
What of a fast declining consumer powers of purchase, an upward spiralling inflation fast climbing up a steep incline, an ineffective regulating mechanism, excuses for the absenteeism, a campaigning administration that thinks nothing of forfeiting citizenry lives by flooding a weak, already teetering market with banknotes, freshly smelling of the offset they rolled from. Moreover, the notes only super facially look genuine but are, in fact, not so going by the new notes in departure in design and layout from old notes. That the public was not prepared for the changes by the bank of Somaliland or the government and the way the government is taking off all the plugs to garner, ostensibly, more support, as critics contend, makes the new banknotes suspect, too
Source: Jadedafrica.com, April 06, 2003 (http://jadedafrica.dekarabaw.com/archives/2003_04.html)
Diaspora Story (1)
"I've met the people in HAVOYOCO, they're young and idealistic. Imagine, the organization started with young Somalilanders collecting garbage and selling them to generate money" she added. HAVOYOCO is well known in Somaliland as a youth organization doing circus. They cater to the visual hunger of Somalis for entertainment. HAVOYOCO utilizes circus to educate the public about issues affecting the environment, HIV/Aids education, Female Genital Mutilation among others. They are hired by International Organizations and local non-government organizations for their awareness campaigns. "The money HAVOYOCO gets from the circus goes to the organization to fund its activities. The group now has 9 projects intended for the communities. It has a soap factory that employs women, a maternal and child health program, literacy programs for women and youth, now the organization employs 54 project staff, including paid teachers, and the group started 10 years ago by collecting garbage!" she added.
Because of poverty and the influx of international aid doing rehabilitation and reconstruction work, the 12 years of peace in Somaliland witnessed the mushrooming of local non-government organizations. It is a common but sad fact that some LNGO leaders are accused by communities of opportunism and corruption (a condition found in civil society circles worldwide, well almost). "So what is HAVOYOCO's secret I asked. "It's their sense of volunteerism, idealism and commitment. They are young and they just don't want to stop dreaming" she said. With sad eyes one could see her frustration "I just wish Somalis from the diaspora could see how Somalilanders despite the poverty and their struggle in everyday life continue to believe in dreams."
"It's not just about money, there are so many changes in my life ever since I decided to stay here, I don't have the comfort I had in England, but the impact I make in seeing how the lives of my countrymen are changed is enough, all these are not and cannot be bought by money" she quipped. "At the end of the day, I reflect about the things I did and by the implications of the decisions I made, I realized that every single day. I become richer."
Ayaan is one of the participants in the Health Advocacy Training I am facilitating, she's a Somalilander, one of the new generation of Somalis from the diaspora who have decided to return to Somaliland. She is one of HAVOYOCO's program coordinators, managing its Family Life and Child care program. She has been here for a year now and has no plans of going back to England. Not yet. She continues to dream with her fellow young Somalilanders from HAVOYOCO, she continues to struggle with their everyday problems and search for solutions.
We parted agreeing that indeed a person's spirit dies when dreaming stops.
Agence France Presse, April 3, 2003/
Hundreds in Somaliland protest Iraq war
BBC Monitoring International Reports, April 3, 2003/Radio Hargeysa in Somali 1700 gmt 3 Apr 03
SOMALILAND PRESIDENT IN TALKS WITH VISITING ETHIOPIAN DELEGATION IN HARGEYSA
BBC Monitoring International Reports, April 1, 2003/Jamhuuriya web site, Hargeysa, in Somali 31 Mar 03
SOMALILAND PRESIDENT ADDRESSES PARLIAMENT, HOPES FOR SUCCESSFUL ELECTIONS
Internal and foreign affairs
On matters regarding the country's internal affairs, the president said security had been tightened, while expansion of the administration has been completed in Sool Region eastern Somaliland; disputed with neighbouring Puntland by sending a reconciliatory committee, the outcome of whose work had been fruitful. He said the country advocated a policy of coexistence with neighbouring countries and the world at large in order to live in peace and non-interference, and urged the public, political parties and other institutions to refrain from provocative utterances about neighbouring states.
Terrorism
We hold the same position as the international community in regard to terrorism, in all its forms and aspects, as stipulated in Somaliland's constitutional charter the president said. We shall not accept those suspected of working for or aiding the Al-Qa'idah network or Al-Ittihad militant Islamic militant group accused of links with Al-Qa'idah, whose operations are not found in Somaliland. He said Somaliland was part of the international coalition in the fight against terrorism and would soon form a national anti-terrorism committee.
Iraq
On the Iraq issue, the president said he would like the matter to be resolved peacefully and diplomatically on the principles of international law and peaceful coexistence.
Emergency areas
He suggested that areas of Somaliland currently under emergency rule such as Laas Caanood, Hudu and Taleh be removed from such a status, to facilitate the forthcoming elections in the area. He said the Ministry of Interior Affairs was in charge of drawing border points and the level of taxation.
Foreign policy
On foreign affairs, he said Somaliland had dispatched various delegations into the Diaspora, with special attention had been given to our neighbouring countries, west Africa, Senegal and Mali. "We have representatives in the UN, Europe, Asia (Middle east) and North America," said Mr Riyale.
Elections
On the forthcoming elections, he said: We have completed parliamentary elections, which passed off very fairly and smoothly. We are now approaching the presidential elections which I think will mark the completion of our democratic process, which is also monitored closely by the international community, as a requirement for the recognition of our country.
Therefore, it is an obligation of parliament, the general public and the contesting political parties to undertake collectively their responsibilities and safeguard security, which is the basic foundation for holding elections. We also urge MPs to observe the electoral regulations.
It has not been possible to present to parliament this year's budget at the same time as completing the electoral rules and regulations, as you required. Our relations with Ethiopia grow stronger day by day and there are no rifts between us. I appeal to all the people of Somaliland to vote peacefully during the forthcoming Somaliland elections, just as they did at the previous one. I pray to God that the elections end in a peaceful manner.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 62 March 29, 2003
Feature: Somalia And Survival In The Shadow Of The Global Economy (Part 5)
Patronage Politics, Foreign Aid, and the Start of State Collapse
The 1960 unification of British Somaliland and Italian Somalia as an independent state did not result in a reduction of external financial support, nor the economic irrelevancy that IMF investigators and scholars predicted. Though no magnet for foreign investment, Somalia's rulers discovered that they could turn prerogatives of sovereignty into tools to attract external economic assets. Somalia's government perfected the art of playing to the diplomatic and strategic interests of former colonial rulers, superpowers and others willing to exchange aid for affirmation of a particular ideology, diplomatic alignment, or access to military bases. Rulers used these resources to attract popular legitimacy and manage domestic political rivals. The latter presented more pressing challenges and dominated the conduct of Somalia's external relations. As southern Somali agricultural projects shows, capital-based strongmen used foreign aid to build political networks that later provided key agents of violence and armed groups of followers when central control over this network collapsed. Ironically, the preferred strategies for building a state and political community on the margins of the global economy after 1960 also lay at the heart of state collapse and violent community fragmentation after 1990.
The high water mark of this centrally managed political project began with the coup of General Mohamed Siyaad Barre on 21 October 1969. Initially it appeared to be a state-building project. Barre (a former member of the Italian Somaliland and British wartime interim administration police) announced that all speakers of the Somali language should be unified in a single state, and supported crash literacy programs to propagate a new Somali script. In 1970 he unveiled an official `Scientific Socialist' ideology and invited the Soviet navy to lease the deepwater port of Berbera, in former British Somaliland. Barre took ideological cues and foreigner's cash where he could find it, combining Islamic poetry with the centralizing vision of Lenin, the cult of personality of North Korea's Kim Il-Sung and advice from Western creditors and donors who in fact remained his primary financial supporters even during his alignment with the Soviet Union. Barre also admitted to admiring Benito Mussolini, who he called `my former commander'. While Barre was insistent on ideological consistency, he did maintain a consistent pursuit of a centrally organized state-building project, whether of fascist or socialist inspiration. In this sense, Barre responded to the global incentives of his time, a political and economic world that supported state regulation of domestic economies and that provided financial support to leaders of new states who embarked on these projects.
Barre went even further, and vigorously pursued an irredentist project of consolidating all Somali speakers in a single state. This translated into official support for a Northern Frontier District Liberation Front in Kenya and a Front de Liberation de la Cotes des Somalis in neighboring French Somaliland. Somali state-building continued with the infiltration of Ogadeeni clan fighters of the Somali-Abo Liberation Front (SALF) and the Western Somalia Liberation Front (WSLF) to `reclaim' ethnic Somali territory in Ethiopia's Ogaden after a coup in 1975 amidst challenges from separatist movements in Eritrea, Tigray and Oromo. SALF and WSLF ties to the Somali government were tight enough that a government office in Mogadishu distributed their propaganda in the consolidated Bulletin of Somali Liberation Fronts, denouncing `Abyssinian colonialism' and calling for these regions to (re)join the Somali nation. By March 1978, however, Ethiopian counter-attacks reached Somali territory after Ethiopia's rulers made their own bid for Soviet aid. Barre's attack on Ethiopia had consequences decades later as Ethiopian leaders concluded that keeping Somalia very weak and disorganized after Barre's fall in 1991 was integral to their own security. Barre's Soviet backers abandoned him in 1978, preferring instead to align with a seemingly more genuine Marxist-Leninist ruling party in Ethiopia (which also is ten times more populous than Somalia). This came on top of the bad news for Barre in 1977 that French Somaliland voters rejected union with Somalia and opted for independence as the Republic of Djibouti in a referendum.
Despite Barre's loss of Soviet patronage, his regime managed to find a new external source of income. The US government established its own (more modest) military presence and gave Barre's regime more than $800 million in aid. A quarter of this was devoted to military expenditures. Italy was more generous. Conveniently for Barre, his Italian patrons were willing to include local politicians in insider deals in providing over a billion dollars in the 1980s for more than one hundred projects, which contributed to Barre's role as a distributor of largesse to his informal political network of associates, both inside government and in `private' (but politically well connected) business.
Overall, outside aid generated $2.8 billion for Somalia between 1972 and 1989, making Somali people Africa's greatest beneficiaries of aid on a per capita basis at that time. The geographic, sectoral and political distribution of aid, however, shows that most Somalis benefited very little as aid, not just from his Italian patrons, became a major source of corruption and kickbacks to regime favourites. The extreme dependence of the country on foreign aid for 90 percent of recorded development spending underlines the centrality of Barre in all avenues of economic life-as manager of formal state allocations and as patron to political allies-at the expense of broader community or commercial efforts. Barre's domination of these economic channels also entrenched his power in the institutional frameworks of communities targeted for development spending. He used these initiatives to overlay his own political network over old informal local networks. The consequence later would be that informal mediating institutions such as xeer and the authority of `traditional' leaders would be weakest in these areas once sustained conflict broke out in the late 1980s. Thus economic globalization in this manner laid the groundwork for state collapse. When examined in its patrimonial context, it also provides a guide for predicting which communities would organize their own responses to state collapse and which ones would not, and how each category would respond to economic opportunities in the 1990s and 2000s.
Meanwhile, agricultural projects and programs absorbed 22 percent of development spending in the 1980s, with 90 percent of that allocated to large-scale commercial crop farming. Favoured groups benefited from the construction of dams, irrigation and plantation farming in the south. This southern area was the dominant beneficiary of this category of spending. Foreign experts complained that this priority excluded more numerous pastoralists, especially those in northern areas affected by conflict that continued long after the Somali invasion of Ethiopia, even though agriculture spending rose as a proportion of development spending during this period. Further accentuating the social differentiation that development spending promoted, social service expenditures fell from 6.3 percent of development spending in 1975 to less than one percent in 1989. By the 1980s, even this small amount was reserved in large part to provide housing for faculty and staff at the National University in Mogadishu.
Even though state support declined politically favoured groups continued to benefit. Industrial firms, for example, received 35 percent of development spending in 1975, dropping to 10 percent in the mid 1980s. This decline reflected the regime's acceptance of creditor advice to privatize industrial enterprises. This was carried out on the basis of political favouritism, and was immediately followed with massive manipulation of credit markets to benefit regime cronies. Administrative regulations depressed formal market interest rates for credit to -80 percent in real terms in 1984, compared to marginal positive rates in the late 1970s. Not efficient in economists' terms, negative rates ensured that credit would be distributed to politically powerful groups and businessmen. Lucky recipients later paid their creditors in severely depreciated local currency, which effectively meant that the state provided its favourites with a bonus for holding these loans. The fiscal demands of this policy meant that the politically marginalized had to seek credit on their own in much more expensive informal markets that did not enjoy patronage from the state. Alternatively they could leave the country in search of economic opportunities abroad. This further marginalizing politically disfavoured groups from Barre's informal patronage networks, though it would have positive significance in later years when their community leaders would find that they had influence over these overseas sources of income independent of strongmen associated with Barre's regime.
Likewise, policy failure coupled with a steady flow of foreign aid helped civil servants migrate into regime-sanctioned clandestine channels. By 1989, civil servants were paid only three to four percent of the real value of their 1975 salaries, and had to support themselves through corruption, bribes and kickbacks. Despite declining salaries, Barre increased civil service employment from approximately 20,000 in 1969 to over 56,000 in 1983. This made association with foreign financed development projects a vital part of the survival strategies of civil servants. Uncertainty and scarcity helped turn these projects into an even more valuable political resource for Barre. A foreign consultant observed, however, that the civil service lost a disproportionate portion of more educated employees, particularly those who came from the north who Barre regarded as less desirable as political clients. As shown below, politically marginalized communities in the north were forced to became more adept at exploiting the economic opportunities of clandestine markets and overseas employment on their own, often in defiance of the regime and in conflict with clandestine rackets that regime favourites ran.
Even when Barre's irredentist adventure and destructive economic policies brought growing popular insecurity, foreign relief aid offered him additional political resources that he could plow back into his `official' clandestine economy. UN officials, for example, complained that $100 million in relief aid to refugees of the 1977-78 war was distributed on the basis of clan leadership loyalties to Barre, and was used to reinforce the control of regime strongmen who were responsible for controlling distribution of relief aid in the camps. Aid workers testified that food was pilfered from convoys and sold in local markets with the connivance of local officials. UN officials used this same complaint over pilferage to justify intervention in the early 1990s. Nor is it coincidence that the same individuals and armed groups were responsible for this use of violence in both periods, though prior to 1990 this was an informal `official' state policy, while freelance in the latter. One aid worker estimated that three quarters of all supplies were stolen, with some going directly to pro-Barre militias that attacked clans that Barre believed opposed his rule. Massive over counting of refugees, 1.5 million by Somali government estimate versus 650,000 in the view of aid agencies also were geared toward generating resources for patronage.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 62 March 29, 2003
Hargeysa Mayor Orders Payment of Subsidies for Maandeeq
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 62 March 29, 2003
Funding Somaliland's poll
Lessons Learnt
"We had a lot of experience from that election," Commission chairman Ahmed Haji Ali Adami told IRIN. "There were some difficulties, we learned a lot of lessons, we put them on a very long list and we are trying to improve according to our ability and according to the finance we receive." For the presidential poll, the Commission says it submitted a budget request to the Somaliland government of $1.5 million, but was granted only about $1 million. Although it has received some financial pledges and training support from the international community, Commission members told IRIN that donors had been less forthcoming this time. For example, the European Union (EU) provided support for voter education in the local elections but has not extended funding this time.
"The reason is political," said Commission member Mohammed Sheikh Abdillahi. "Supporting a presidential election in a country that is not recognised would be construed as a political act."
The Electoral Commission nevertheless hopes to receive support from individual countries, notably Britain, Norway and Switzerland. The Electoral Commission has seven members. Three were selected by the government, two by the House of Elders and two by opposition parties. Two opposition candidates are running against incumbent president Dahir Riyale Kahin. There will be only one round of voting, with the winner requiring a simple majority.
The lack of a proper census means that there is no voter list. The Commission says it abandoned attempts to register voters in advance of the local elections, because it did not have the means.
900 Polling Stations
Commission chairman Ahmed Haji Ali Adami told IRIN there would be 900 polling stations across Somaliland. He said the ballot papers, printed in the UK, had already arrived, along with indelible ink that would be put on the hands of voters to prevent fraud. He added that the ballot papers had been counted, given serial numbers and put under lock and key. "As a commission we are ready," he said. "Apart from that financial constraint, we are ready. You can go around and see that everything is planned according to date. And I think technically we are ready."
The Commission says it is committed to taking ballot papers to all parts of Somaliland, including the eastern Sool and Sanaag regions, where the government has imposed a state of emergency. These areas have been experiencing insecurity owing to a territorial dispute with neighboring Puntland and spillover from fighting there.
But Commission member Mohammed Sheikh Abdillahi told IRIN that reaching remote areas posed considerable logistical problems. "You know this country has no roads and communications are very poor, and the country is very large," he said. "So to cover that is a big logistical nightmare."
The Commission says security is also a concern. The government will provide the necessary security personnel, but Abdillahi said voter education could also help. "There is a need to emphasize security," he said. "Somaliland people were the real heroes last time, the self-discipline in the queues was extraordinary, there was no need for policemen or anything. But we don't take anything for granted, and we want to emphasize again the need for security and peace during the election time."
Voter Education
The Commission says voters are highly politically aware and are likely to vote in big numbers. It expects at least a 50 percent increase on the 450,000 people who voted in the local elections. However, the Commission says it needs to provide more education on how to vote, especially for women. "The majority of the voters last time were women," says Shukri Haji Ismail, the only woman member of the Electoral Commission. "Last time they were asking many questions," she said. "About 70 percent of the Somaliland women are illiterate, and there were certain problems when they were trying to mark the ballot papers. But this time we will be trying to show them.
"Specifically we will be targeting the women and showing them, and telling them that if they want to vote for a certain party they should not be intimidated or pushed into voting for somebody else," she added. During the local elections, polling stations closed at 6pm. The Commission says it is considering an extension of voting hours this time, to ensure that everyone gets the chance to cast their ballot.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 62 March 29, 2003
Drug - The Double Edged Knife (Part 2)
Those people studied made mistakes in the way they took their medication - either too much, not enough, or at the wrong time. Doctors like to blame their uncooperative patients for these errors, but according to these researches for the problem really lies with the physician for not communicating the instructions simply and clearly.
The true goal of this article, then, is to provide people with basic information regarding the potential hazards of drugs as well as of those medications physicians prescribe most often. My hope is to enable people understand how the medicines they take work in their bodies and how to approach simple medical problems before, during, and after professional medical intervention. It may help save you some money, but more important, it may help save your life.
What is a Drug?
With so much misinformation, emotion, and plain ignorance surrounding the whole field of "drugs" today, it is no wonder that people are confused and apprehensive. Our so-called drug culture is a never-ending source of editorials, commercials, and apprehension. Yet drugs are nothing new to our generation. The ancient Egyptians were masters of drug therapy, and one medical papyrus lists over nine hundred prescriptions. In fact, it is very likely that as far back as 2000 BC, Egyptian physicians were treating wounds and infections with a chemical derived from a fungus which probably was a near relative to penicillin. There is even a suggestion in some ancient manuscripts that the Egyptians might have had a birth control pill. Almost every culture has taken advantage of the chemicals nature has provided in the form of leaves, roots and bark in order to fashion remedies and cures. Such staples of modern therapeutics as aspirin, digitalis, and quinine (first used for fevers, then for malaria) are derived from natural plants. From a bird's-eye view, it is only fairly recently that we have learned how to isolate the active ingredients in plants and synthesize our own by-products chemically.
So what is a drug? Well, in reality it is just a word, which exists in people's minds. When potato first reached arrived in Europe, it was considered something very special, selling not as a food but rather - at high price - as a "medicine" for its aphrodisiac quantities. In its broadest sense, most people would consider any prescriptive agent a drug and, as a result of the current furor over abuse, any agent which is used illicitly for its physiological effects. Either naively or unconsciously, people generally fail to realize that many of the chemicals they casually consume are themselves drugs. As defined by standard pharmacological textbook, a drug is "any chemical agent that effects living matter".
Are vitamins drugs? Most people would say No without thinking twice. However, when Vitamin C is ingested in very large amounts - for example - it is no longer the simple vitamin you find in your orange juice. Nor does the eighteen-year girl who was taking really huge amounts of Vitamin A daily for her acne typify a simple case of the ingestion of a natural product found carrots. She wound up in a hospital with severe headache, blurred vision, sleep disturbances, signs of mental illness, and an initial diagnosis of a brain tumor. All this was due to excessive amounts of Vitamin A.
No one in his right mind would ever classify cigarettes, aspirin, food additives, or air as drugs. Yet nicotine, alcohol, aspirin, nitrates, and yes, even air-or more specifically oxygen-each has a distinct pharmacology with special effects upon your body, (premature babies given large doses of oxygen may suffer from irreversible blindness.) Perhaps I overstate the case; yet we have been lulled into complacency about what we put into our bodies, both by the industries that manufacture and advertise their products and by the doctors who prescribe them. Remember, one study reported that 60 percent of patients consider their drugs completely safe.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 62 March 29, 2003
"The First Lady of Song."
Sahra Siyaad is known as "The First Lady of Song." She was discovered in Somaliland's "Independence Garden Theater" in Hargeisa during an amateur night contest. The singer made her first recording cassette with the famous singer Ahmed Mogeh in 1969, and went on to appear with some of Somaliland's best recording artists, including the renowned "Barkhad Cas Group."
In 1971, she was the only female singer to perform with the male vocalists in the group. The "Barkhad Cas Band" which toured the entire country and catapulted her to fame. From that concert on, she set the standard for Somaliland female singers. Famous Somaliland vocalists, such as "Shankaroon," emulated and copied her style of singing, which later made her a superstar in her own terms.
When she first sang with Ahmed Mogeh in 1969, the song became number one in Somaliland, and remains a collector's item to this day. (The song is called "Jaalahaa Waalaal," and was about a friend, Ahmed Mogeh, soothing his female friend, Sahra Siyaad, by reassuring her that her lover still loves her.)
During the following years, Sahra sang again with Ahmed Ali "Drum," a song called "Shacni iyo wanaag." She made music history at the time, because she was the first Somaliland female vocalist to release two recordings in a row.
Again in 1971, she fulfilled her ultimate dream of performing in one of the most memorable concerts ever put on stage. She was the star performer since she was the only female among the talented singers. Her hit single, "Allah Caagoor Boogseexeh" or "Allah is the only one who cures illness," was a metaphor for the life and times of Mohamed Ismail Barkhad Cas, the great nationalist poet, playwright, and songwriter. Since the whole concert was a tribute to him, the song depicted the last days of the poet's life.
The song in English:
- Didn't the masses and the youth
- Love me?
- Is it because of my illness?
- That they stop saying Hi?
- Allah curses all sickness
- But you begin to wonder
- About people's intentions fully
- When you are in need!
Sahra with her hauntingly sensual, sexy, raspy singing voice, mixed the sadness and grief, and brought down the house when she performed the song for the audience. In her stunning, emotional, and powerful voice, she radiated so much feeling and conviction that the audience mistook her for the poet she represented in the performance. It was one of the best performances by a female vocalist in a long time. Her style, stage presence, and singing ability made her a superstar. The song was so powerful it left many people to wonder and ask questions about her health status after the concert. She must have been too convincing in her role, for people to ask such questions!
Sahra collaborated again with Ahmed Ali "Drum" in another beautiful song called "Maad ee yoo Laamaanaan," or in English, "Can you be my partner?"
The lyrics in English:
- I was waiting for you
- All day yesterday
- You are connected emotionally to me
- Through umbilical cord as well as the backbone
- From the corner of my eye
- I catch a glimpse of you
- And turn quickly shying
Can you be my partner?
During the concert and later, she found herself lionized as the spokeswoman of a nation. But the mantle of courage rested heavily on a woman who had never intended to do anything but sing. Her sweet but strong voice evoked a land where song and poetry has a life-saving ability to the hearts of all people. She sometimes sang with a slinky Qaaraami feeling, but she also summoned up a thunderous force.
Radiating hope, however, was not easy for her because the man "Barkhad Cas" that she was playing, was a man to whom sickness, burden, and loss were a way of life!
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 62 March 29, 2003
Flawed Election Might Derail Recognition
The country is gearing up for the upcoming presidential election (April 14th, 2003). Somaliland prides herself with stability that eluded the rest of Somalia. In order to bolster her claim to sovereignty, Somaliland is poised in surpassing another milestone that isn't currently characterized nor practiced in Africa: Holding free and fair elections. To accomplish that, the election commission should be an independent agency with an earmarked budget. An agency that is free from undue government influence. However, the commission's work is hamstrung by the Administration's unwillingness to confer the Commission an independent status and that bodes ill for Somaliland. The fear is flawed election could derail the prospects of recognition.
Ambassador David Shin's "the little country that could be" (CSIS, November 2002) has echoed this sentiment. The analysis has touched some issues that have shaped Somaliland and others that need attention. It remarked that the upcoming election demands careful planning and consideration before embarking on it.
Further, it has indicated that election could be double-edge sword. While it has pointed-out that free and fair election at both the municipal and national levels could strengthen the prospects of recognition, it has also warned that conducting flawed election could hinder recognition. Well said. Few have dared to question the possibility and practicality of holding free and fair elections within the constitutional time frame at that time. To their credit, the Somaliland Forum has, in a letter addressed to the Gurti, hinted to postpone the presidential election within the confinement of the constitution. Prior to that, I have also raised serious concerns about the feasibility of conducting reasonably free and fair elections in "is it too late to hold multiparty elections?" ( Somaliland Times , issue 20, June 1st, 2002). As usual, these advices were ignored. That was then. Now, it is too late and all that Somaliland could hope for is to minimize the fall out of an election destined and designed to be rigged.
Holding elections without proper planning would only benefit those who have the power, the will and the means to rig the process and the current Administration is intended to muscle-out the opposition, wheel itself into the Presidency without fear and shame in whichever way it can. The obstacles, the procedural deficiency and the ill preparedness that I have outlined in "is it too late to hold elections" are more resounding today than they were ten (10) months ago.
Here it is again, in part. "Limited resources, decayed infrastructure, remote polling stations, poor telecommunications, the lack of census and proper documents and the inexperience of both the election commission and the electorate would be daunting to over come. .the organization of the upcoming election is monumental: It requires planning, appraisal, coordination, facilities, logistics, equipment, observers (local and international), mobilization of security officers, and many more tasks that require comprehensive analysis. .There should be no illusion; this isn't going to be a walk in the park like the uncontested referendum".
"A permanent independent election agency should be established. The longer the election commission remains part-time, the longer elections would be delayed. In order to conduct a reasonably satisfactory election, there must be an independent agency assigned to conduct the election. Since, Somaliland has embraced the democratic principles, which require periodic elections, referendums, initiatives and the like, it can't afford to assemble each time an inexperienced commission and disband it after the election. The election is the foundation of good governance and to assign ad-hoc committee, and part-time personnel for such an important office would be a disservice to democracy. The election office should be held to the highest regard and for that reason; it should become a permanent agency. The agency should recruit immediately permanent professional staff with regional representatives and secretarial staff. In order to conduct free and fair elections, the agency should have a budget earmarked for discharging its duty".
"The fact that an ill equipped election commission is appointed isn't the end of the road. The road is long; it has many turns, it has uphill, and it is rough and there is no Samaritan along the way handing over cold water. Only a seasoned marathon runner could afford a respite but an impoverished Somaliland with worn-out and squeaking wheels would have to approach the upcoming election with a desire to survive."
"Somaliland should prepare and standardize the election procedures. The custody, the security and the procedures of counting of the ballots, the training of the staff, detecting and deterring to vote more than once, chronicling problems and resolving conflicts at the polling station are only a few of many tasks that would require identifying and prescribing standardized procedures. All of these tasks consist of minute details that need planning. If these procedures aren't standardized, each polling station would be implementing a separate procedure and that could be enough grounds to contaminate. Standardizing the system and the procedures across the board would enhance the efficiency, the transparency and the fairness. Whenever the standard is established, there is less chaos and less improvisation, and any deviations can be analyzed, evaluated and assessed against the prescribed standard."
That was ten months ago. Today, the Presidential election is one month away and sadly the preparation is limping and the finish line is looming. Conducting reasonably fair Presidential election is an event Somaliland could have used to her benefit but that prospect is loosing credibility fast. No one disputes the benefits of an internationally acclaimed and certified free and fair election but it appears that the Administration has circumvented the system for shortsighted political gain. And that might cost Somaliland dearly.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 62 March 29, 2003
Kulmiye is Winning; A True President is Waiting in the Wings
A new dawn under the Kulmiye Party is coming. In the streets, the countryside, the houses, and the hamlets; amongst the everyday people, the traders, the businessmen/women, and the farmers there is a true sense of expectation in the air. A seed has been planted. Belief in themselves, belief in their democratic right to vote, a palpable taste of a different, forward looking, corruption-free, gender neutral, developed Somaliland is in the air. Support for the Kulmiye Party is at an all time high and continuing to grow. Thousands of people turn out at every party function. This is not hyperbole but fact.
The UDUB party is not the solid Corinthian column its name suggests but rather a convergence point of highly different political entities and individuals who share not a single ideological mantra but are held together by other forces, namely, money and political expediency. With all the advantages that being a party in power would confer, they have not been able to convince us, the people of Somaliland, of a single achievement under the Rayaale administration. Not a single one. Yes there has been peace following the death of Egal but that has nothing to do with Riyaale and UDUB but everything to do with the political maturity and restraint of the people of Somaliland.
At the recent Kulmiye Party reception in Washington D.C, some of the most senior figures in the United States with respect to African affairs were present. Amongst them, John Prendgrast, Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council and Ted Dange from the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. These very powerful men wanted to lend their support to the Presidential candidate, Ahmed Silanyo (a man whom they know very well) and a Party that they saw that could do justice and honour to the aspirations and needs of the people of Somaliland.
The vast majority of people of Somaliland are for the Kulmiye Party and the international political world trust the leadership of the Kulmiye Party. It is becoming more and more obvious that unless UDUB literally steals this election, they will loose and they will loose BIG.
As Ahmed Silanyo has reiterated time and time again, the peace and stability of this nation precedes everything. Consequently, we know he will accept the results regardless. Such is the nature of true leaders and the worth of this one. But, we the people of Somaliland WILL NOT be robbed of our democratic right to elect our chosen leaders. We must continue being visible, we must come out by the thousands and we must make our voices heard. They can't silence a million voices.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 62 March 29, 2003
Why We Shouldn't Elect Rayale Kahin As President
The people of Somaliland are facing a major challenge. In less than six weeks, they will be presented with an opportunity to elect a president through a popular vote, for the first time in the history of the new republic. UDUB, the Government Party, has nominated Dahir Rayale Kahin for the highest office in the land and there are many inside and outside the country, who support his candidacy. Rayale is not the right candidate and should not be elected. The people of Somaliland should not take this responsibility lightly; they should resist the pressure to elect a man who has a questionable past, a mediocre track record as interim President and who lacks the most basic qualifications to lead the nation. As the age-old saying goes, "those who do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them".
A cursory look at Somaliland's history over the past couple of decades clearly depicts a disturbing pattern of courageousness and naiveness that is intertwined in an oblivious manner. We have shown remarkable resilience and steadfastness when it comes to defending our new sovereignty and denying any association with the rest of Somalia - because we all remember the inhumane treatment Somalilanders had suffered during Siyad Barre's reign of terror. But when it comes to the "enemy within", we demonstrate an incredible political naivet that is far too quick to "forgive".
Let me set the record straight from the beginning. What happened in Somaliland and the events that led to the creation of the new republic are a common knowledge. The heroic struggle of our people against oppression is well documented and accessible to anyone willing to delve deep into it. My purpose of writing this personal opinion note is to expose the hypocrisy being thrown around these days in the name of "political correctness" by some individuals and groups who are hell bent on rewriting history and manipulating facts to serve their political purposes.
Ever since Rakiya Omar published her recent article about the atrocities that were perpetrated in Somaliland in the 1980s, I have read a plethora of negative reaction to her timely advice that the victims of these atrocities should not be forgotten. These are words of wisdom coming from a highly respected human rights activist who has injected a rare introspection into the current political debate in Somaliland. Those who have taken cheap shots at Raqiya's motives cannot succeed in smearing her internationally acclaimed reputation. Indeed, no amount of smearing can detract from her powerful argument that Somaliland cannot afford to elect to the highest office in the land someone who has been accused, and not yet absolved, of serious human rights violations against our people. That message is loud and clear. Attacking the messenger is a fashionable tactic - a thinly-veiled attempt to change the subject and it will not succeed. Remaining silent and not speaking about this smear campaign is nothing short of complicity. I am sure that no one in his right mind and conscience will feel comfortable with that characterization, particularly considering the magnitude of the crimes that were committed in Somaliland during the period Rayale was a senior member of the notorious National Security Service (NSS).
The person at the center of the storm is Dahir Rayale Kahin, the President of the Republic of Somaliland, who has been appointed to complete the term of the late President, Mohamed I. Egal. The storm itself is whether this man could be or should be the legitimate president of the young fledgling nation. That storm has generated a heated debate among the Somaliland people everywhere, a legitimate debate that must be encouraged. But the rule of the debate must be properly defined, so that people can be given an objective analysis to make informed decisions. Democratic governance demands no less.
Rayale's long service as a senior official of Siyad Barre's dreaded National Security Service (NSS) is a matter of record, not conjecture. He was the man in-charge of the NSS's headquarters in the strategic port city of Berbera in the 1980s, a sensitive time that was the peak of Barre's genocidal campaign against the Isaaq. The NSS as we all know was an organization that was in the vanguard in that campaign. Modeled after the KGB, the NSS used the worst forms of torture known to man.
As Raqiya Omar documented in her much celebrated book," A Government At War With Its Own People", there were witnesses who lived in Berbera and elsewhere in Somaliland whose testimony directly implicated Rayale Kahin in the atrocities that were committed there. Admittedly, Rayale has not been tried and is not yet convicted of these alleged crimes. That is because Somaliland has not yet developed a system to try those people accused of crimes against humanity. The fact that he has not been tried does not absolve him of complicity either.
Even if he were found to be not directly responsible for the massacre in Berbera (and that is a big "if"), there is amble circumstantial evidence to show that the notorious organization that he led perpetrated these crimes. The NSS's main role was to terrorize the people of Somaliland to discourage them from supporting the Somali National Movement, the very organization that finally liberated the country and declared Somaliland a sovereign nation. Honorable people, who did not participate in the terror campaign against the Somaliland people, in those dark days, did one of two things: They either left the service of that brutal regime in disgust and fled, or they joined the SNM and took up arms against the regime. Rayale did neither and continued to serve the regime loyally until it collapsed.
The electorate of Somaliland must not ignore this undeniable fact. I can understand why Rayale is completely silent about this matter, since it broke out into the political debate. It is embarrassing! I can also see why Rayale's loyal supporters are so eager to purge it from public debate: They have lost the moral ground by defending the indefensible! Imagine a world were the perpetrators rule the victims; where the villains preside over the heroes; where justice succumbs to the injustice; where truth is folded under covers and falsehood is given a legitimate footing; and where the perpetrators become the voices of victims which are rendered voiceless. To take the argument up a nudge, imagine if Sharon was to become the president of the Palestinian Authority, or Hitler was to preside over the Knesset, or Slobadan Milosevich was to be the president of the new Republic of Bosnia-Herecegovina.
As much as a lot people will be uncomfortable with the parallels that I am drawing here, the truth of the matter is: people who abuse their powers and commit heinous crimes against innocent civilians should be held responsible and should be forced to face the charges against them in a court of law, be it local or international in jurisdiction.
There is a disturbing aspect to all this. The Somalilanders in the diaspora have jumped on to the political correctness bandwagon and appear to be watching events that could have serious consequences for their newly found nation. Many, it appears, are not daring to speak out simply because they may offend someone or they are afraid that they may be branded "qabiili" by another. That is wrong!
Those of us who sought refuge in Diaspora should take the high moral ground as many governments (like Canada) have enshrined a clause in their immigration policies that people who held senior level positions in regimes that were deemed to have committed human rights violations should not be admitted in. Similarly, we should enlighten our brethren in Somaliland not to accept to be governed by individuals who participated in their persecution. If we don't, what kind of message are we sending to the likes of Ganni and Morgan and the rest who are closely watching the events that are unfolding in Somaliland.
For the benefit of those who might be reading this out of context, here is a brief historical background of Rayale Kahin's ascension to power.
Rayale Kahin was the officer-in-charge of the NSS's headquarters in Berbera in the 1980s. When the liberation forces of the Somali National Movement (SNM) drove Siyad Barre's forces out of Somaliland early in 1991, he fled the city of Berbera via a barren, dusty coastal road, which eventually took him to the town of Las Anod. Witnesses who saw him escape indicated that Rayale was traveling in a convoy of cars and trucks that included brand new land cruisers. Remember that as part of a decree issued by Siyad Barre to the NSS, people who were Isaaq by birth were not allowed to own or drive land cruisers. Hence, Rayale and his NSS forces were in effect confiscating all these vehicles upon arrival at the port of Berbera. There are some corroborated allegations that Rayale Kahin cashed on his loot, as the convoy was auctioned in Las Anod shortly after his arrival there.
When the SNM liberated the country, its leadership wisely chose a policy of reconciliation as opposed to that of confrontation and revenge. This gesture of goodwill on the part of the SNM gave some people with questionable backgrounds an opportunity to creep up the political mainstream. The late president, Egal, whose animosity to the SNM veterans was well known, handpicked Rayale Kahin as his vice-president. Egal's intention was to alienate the SNM and keep it out of Somaliland's mainstream political arena. With the passing away of Egal, Rayale Kahin found himself sitting at the helm of a fledgling democracy.
Putting aside his dubious background, Rayale's track record as Interim President is at best very poor. His decision-making process is defective, flawed, and unpredictable. The following blunders that he committed during his brief term in office are testimonial to his lack of sound judgment: His first state visit was to Djibouti. Ismail Omar Gelle, Djibouti's president, is a staunch opponent to Somaliland's drive to sovereignty. He was the sponsor of the Arta Process, which resulted in the so-called Transitional National Government (TNG). Gelle is still committed to deny the people of Somaliland their right to self-determination. One wonders then why Rayale saw it fit to pay a state visit to someone who is clearly hostile to the notion of Somaliland becoming a sovereign state. This is the sort of stuff that gives conspiracy theorists something to buzz about.
His total ignorance of the geopolitical situation of the Horn has also already translated into a serious hardship for many Somalilanders. During his term in office, the Somaliland-Ethiopian border and the goods and services that cross between the two nations has suffered a major setback. There have been border closures and the Somalilanders who used to crisscross the border freely are currently dealing with major restrictions including payment of tariffs. While he was courting president Gelle who is very much anti-Somaliland, he alienated the Ethiopian government, which is sympathetic to the creation of a sovereign Somaliland. Our poor people are paying the price for Rayale's diplomatic incompetence.
His ill-fated decision to go to Las Anod cost Somaliland an enormous political capital in two critical ways. First, it started a civil conflict that tarnished Somaliland's peaceful image internationally and damaged reconciliation efforts internally. Second, by his rapid retreat, he acknowledged that Sool was indeed outside the jurisdiction of Somaliland. No one can understand why he ventured into that territory without the necessary preparation. Finally, the Presidency of a nation is an honorable, challenging, and demanding job. In today's very complex and intricate world, progress, and even survival, of nations depend on enlightened leadership that can articulate a vision and an agenda to achieve national goals. Rayale Kahin has demonstrated neither. Only seasoned politicians with relevant academic backgrounds could withstand the trials and tribulations of today's ever-changing world. In this regard, Rayale Kahin is void of any of the basic leadership qualities that a nation looks for in its head of state. In fact, he has no personal, professional, or moral legitimacy to be the president of Somaliland. I have reached this conclusion based on objective analysis of this man's past record and experience. I strongly believe that the people of Somaliland, who have suffered for so long, deserve a better candidate. It is about time that the people of Somlailand take a critical look at the man and boot him out of office. If the people of Somaliland miss the opportunity that April 14, 2003 presents, then God, the almighty, help us and help Somaliland.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 62 March 29, 2003
Women Peace Delegates Lobby For Their Rights
The women's workshop has been reviewing draft reports from six technical committees on core issues of the conflict. Drafts from the key federalism committee recommend only a 10 percent quota for women's representation in the new Somali institutions. Kiplagat stressed his support for the Somali women and urged them to play a strong part in the peace process. "I believe the problem of marginalisation of women is discrimination when it comes to education," he told the workshop. He emphasized the need to educate girls. "We need now affirmative action for the girl child," he said. "This continent and Somalia will not develop if you freeze such a great asset - women." In this regard, he proposed a charter for the education of girls. "The issue of women is international," said Atsede Zerfu of Ethiopia, who heads IGAD Women's Desk. "The only thing we can do is to use international conventions, the international community, and also influence our men."
BBC Monitoring International Reports, March 25, 2003/Source: Jamhuuriya web site, Hargeysa, in Somali 25 Mar 03 /) BBC Monitoring
SOMALILAND: FOUR MINISTERS IN CHARGE OF DISPUTED REGIONS APPOINTED
The spokesman stated the reason why the president had appointed the new ministers. He said the president was strengthening the administration of the two regions for the sake of national building.
However, there is a feeling that the appointment of the ministers to the new posts is a political move related to the forthcoming elections.
Apart from Anis Salah Hasan, who was a former Sanaag Region deputy governor and a member of ruling Udub Party, the other three hail from Sool and Sanaag regions. They are hard-liners from the opposition Asad Party faction which has merged with Udub.
There is suspicion that the appointment of the ministers is a move to implement an agreement between Udub which is led by Dahir Riyale Kahin and the Asad Party faction which was led by Saleban Mahmud Adan (Saleban Gal).
The parties had agreed that members of Asad Party who had joined Udub would be given important posts in government ministries and state corporations.
This appointment follows last week's appointment of three other ministers from another Asad faction which has merged with Udub Party.
BBC Monitoring International Reports, March 26, 2003/Source: UN Integrated Regional Information Network, Nairobi, in English 26 Mar 03/) BBC Monitoring
SOMALILAND: ELECTORAL BODY APPEALS FOR MORE DONOR FUNDING FOR 14 APRIL POLLS
Lessons learnt
"We had a lot of experience from that election," Commission Chairman Ahmed Haji Ali Adami told IRIN. "There were some difficulties, we learned a lot of lessons, we put them on a very long list and we are trying to improve according to our ability and according to the finance we receive."
For the presidential poll, the commission says it submitted a budget request to the Somaliland government of 1.5m dollars, but was granted only about 1m. Although it has received some financial pledges and training support from the international community, Commission members told IRIN that donors had been less forthcoming this time.
For example, the EU provided support for voter education in the local elections but has not extended funding this time. "The reason is political," said commission member Mohammed Sheikh Abdillahi. "Supporting a presidential election in a country that is not recognized would be construed as a political act."
The Electoral Commission nevertheless hopes to receive support from individual countries, notably Britain, Norway and Switzerland. The Electoral Commission has seven members. Three were selected by the government, two by the House of Elders and two by opposition parties. Two opposition candidates are running against incumbent President Dahir Riyale Kahin. There will be only one round of voting, with the winner requiring a simple majority. The lack of a proper census means that there is no voter list. The commission says it abandoned attempts to register voters in advance of the local elections, because it did not have the means.
Nine hundred polling stations
Commission chairman Ahmed Haji Ali Adami told IRIN there would be 900 polling stations across Somaliland. He said the ballot papers, printed in the UK, had already arrived, along with indelible ink that would be put on the hands of voters to prevent fraud. He added that the ballot papers had been counted, given serial numbers and put under lock and key. "As a commission we are ready," he said. "Apart from that financial constraint, we are ready. You can go around and see that everything is planned according to date. And I think technically we are ready."
The commission says it is committed to taking ballot papers to all parts of Somaliland, including the eastern Sool and Sanaag regions, where the government has imposed a state of emergency. These areas have been experiencing insecurity owing to a territorial dispute with neighbouring Puntland and spill-over from fighting there.
But commission member Mohammed Sheikh Abdillahi told IRIN that reaching remote areas posed considerable logistical problems. "You know this country has no roads and communications are very poor, and the country is very large," he said. "So to cover that is a big logistical nightmare."
The commission says security is also a concern. The government will provide the necessary security personnel, but Abdillahi said voter education could also help. "There is a need to emphasize security," he said. "Somaliland people were the real heroes last time, the self-discipline in the queues was extraordinary, there was no need for policemen or anything. But we don't take anything for granted, and we want to emphasize again the need for security and peace during the election time."
Voter education
The Commission says voters are highly politically aware and are likely to vote in big numbers. It expects at least a 50 per cent increase on the 450,000 people who voted in the local elections. However, the commission says it needs to provide more education on how to vote, especially for women. "The majority of the voters last time were women," says Shukri Haji Ismail, the only woman member of the Electoral Commission.
"Last time they were asking many questions," she said. "About 70 per cent of the Somaliland women are illiterate, and there were certain problems when they were trying to mark the ballot papers. But this time we will be trying to show them. "Specifically we will be targeting the women and showing them, and telling them that if they want to vote for a certain party they should not be intimidated or pushed into voting for somebody else," she added.
During the local elections, polling stations closed at 6 p.m. The commission says it is considering an extension of voting hours this time to ensure that everyone gets the chance to cast their ballot.
SOMALIA: Feature - Continuity or change in Somaliland
The government believes Kahin will win on merit. But the opposition fears the poll may not be fair, and there is some concern that logistics may not be ready in time for polling.
Information Minister Abdillahi Duale stressed that local elections in December had gone smoothly. "Now that we are going ahead with the presidential elections, everything is in place," he told IRIN. "The electoral process has been tested. The government has already passed the budget for the Electoral Commission."
The Electoral Commission was set up in December 2001, before the local elections. It has seven members, of whom three are selected by the government, two by the House of Elders and two by opposition parties.
Duale also invited the international community to send observers. "Our main objective today is to make sure that the democratisation process is in place, that elections are held in a fair manner," he said. "And I would like on behalf of the government and on behalf of the nation to invite international observers to come, as they did for the local government elections and the constitutional referendum."
OPPOSITION UNSURE OF FAIR POLL
But leading opposition candidate Ahmed Muhammad Silaanyo says he is not sure the elections will be fair. "That's what we hope, but from the experience we had in the last local elections, it is most unlikely," he said. "Because the government is using all its powers and financial resources, working obviously and without shame for UDUB [Somali for pillar] so-called government party."
Silaanyo stressed that the current government had not been elected by the people, and that UDUB was the creation of former president Muhammad Ibrahim Egal, who died in May last year. Riyale, who was Egal's vice-president, took over from him under the terms of a newly adopted constitution.
Fawziya Yussuf Haji Adam had been planning to run as the only independent candidate in the upcoming presidential polls, but accuses the government of having influenced a last-minute Supreme Court ruling that barred her from standing. "UDUB, the government party, published the decision before even the Supreme Court wrote to the [electoral] commission," she told IRIN. "Their spokesman wrote an article in the national newspaper saying that no independent candidate should be allowed to run. By then I could say that almost 60 percent of the voters were on my side."
Fawziya said the Supreme Court decision came so late that it left her no time to take further action, and she was forced to withdraw, although she believes there is nothing in the constitution to bar independent candidates.
"Certainly it is not a level playing field," says Dr Hussein Bulhan of the Academy for Peace and Development, a civil society organisation based in Hargeysa. "There are some advantages that anybody associated with the government has. But I think we have to begin somewhere. It is a question of whether we have a democratisation process to start with or not, and in my view it's important that we get started."
Somaliland, a former British protectorate, declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 after the collapse of the Siad Barre regime, but has not been internationally recognised. In the last decade it has moved away from conflict, while the rest of Somalia has been locked in civil strife.
CONTINUITY OR CHANGE
Information Minister Duale says current President Riyale will ensure continuity of peace and stability for Somaliland, as well as continuing the quest for international recognition. But opposition candidate Silaanyo accuses the government of mismanaging the economy. He says he would clean up corruption and establish a "lean government to deliver the goods".
Silaanyo also told IRIN he would work harder for international recognition. "We need to make more friends," he said. "We will put much more effort towards publicising our cause, and put our case to the international community much more effectively." Silaanyo, who was a senior minister in Siad Barre's government before he quit in the 1980s, joined the armed opposition Somali National Movement (SNM) and eventually became its leader. From 1991, when Somaliland declared its independence, he held various senior ministerial posts until 2001 when he resigned from the government of the late president Egal. Observers rate him as a leading contender in this election.
But presidential candidate Faisal Ali Warabe says both Riyale and Silaanyo are part of the old guard of politicians who are at the root of Somaliland's problems. He says he stands for a real change. "We would like to make a massive shake-up," Warabe told IRIN. "This country needs a system, it never had a system. We want to modernise our parties, institutionalise our parties, as they are not institutionalised yet. We want to make a modern state, based on law and order."
Warabe is an engineer who served in the ministry of public works of Somalia. He has been a chief engineer of Mogadishu and president of a private construction company. Warabe told IRIN his priorities would include gender equality, the environment, and building a healthy economy. He said his government would spend 20 percent of its budget on education and 20 percent on health. It would also implement a five-year plan for rebuilding Somaliland's roads, he said.
c UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003
Source: Togdheer.com, Mar 23, 2003
Kulmiye Cannot Survive Five Years As Opposition If Defeated In This Election
I, and the others who have the same view as me long to see the definition of the word Kulmiye, what is it uniting? What is it unifying? What is it bringing together? Is it the people of Somaliland that it is uniting? Well, one may say yes, but it is a debatable question. I thought the people of Somaliland were already united. There was a consensus of opinion that the Somaliland's people have agreed 12 years ago when they brought their independence back from the former Republic of Somalia, then again on second occasion they have re-iterated that decision in May 2002 by holding a referendum in which 97o/o [ninety seven per cent] have voted in favour of the secession. Many people still do not understand that the people of Somaliland are scared of any word starting with the letter, U, like unity,united,unifacation,unify,unison and etc. Likewise the Somali words starting with the letter, M, like midnimo, midoobid, midqudha, muqadas and etc. and above all, the word starting with the frightening letter, K like Kulmiye.
In this article, I am snubbing neither Mr Siilaanyo nor Mr Riyaale personally but I am shedding a light about their political activity, because personal insults are barred. There are five point which I am prohibited to make a comment about, they are: a) Persons age and ethnicity. b) Personal appearance. c) Private life such as persons family, marital status. d) person's addiction such as smoking, chewing qat and etc. and last one but not least. e) Person's background when this is the negative side. Apart from those five above-mentioned subjects I am scathing about Kulmiye's principles, believes, policies, performances and also the characters of both men {Mr Siilaanyo and Mr Riyaale.} and their cronies.
For many months I was wondering why Mr Siilaanyo established Kulmiye when Egal has passed away, UCID was announced long before the death of the late president, Asad and Sahan were in existence as well. Some may argue that he had something else in mind but I wouldn't have said that he was afraid that he will not win an election while Egal is around but the answer is far more than that. Ask Mr Siilaanyo what his stance on greater Somalia is, his answers are evasive not straightforward.
When every now and then, the Somali warlords and the so-called delegations at the Somali peace conference in Kenya make requests to the Kenyan summit envoy to summon Somaliland to the conference, Kulmiye is very reluctant to answer their cheap and dirty argument while UCID and UDUB are promptly defending Somaliland's position with a sharp tongue. This does not mean that Kulmiye is out of touch with the people and lost the sense of Somaliland's self-determination and the desire of its people to be recognised as an independent country from the former Somali republic. But it is confusion within the Kulmiye party that the party policy makers are indecisive to which policies are first imperative to be pursued. Is it Somaliland's self-determination and finding an international recognition or winning this election.
I think the latter is Kulmiye's most important policy, that is why Kulmiye's reply to aggressive calls from the Somali warlords is always so late and it is the last one of the three parties. Kulmiye in theory is a very big party now you can find peole from all walks of life in the party, It has a massive supporters in the Diaspora who inundated its central office with letters, calls, and e-mails, all pledging their financial assistance and commitment to the party. Despite that influx of loyalist into the party Kulmiye has yet failed to attract substantial number of people from the middle class.
In spite of making long and unprepared speeches at political rallies in every region of the country, their rhetoric and ambigious speeches lack of substance and direct focus of agenda. During the local government elections Kulmiye embarked a long and tiring journey into the heart of the country to woe waverers and get potential supporters for the party but came back to its headquarters with having a little impact on people. Kulmiye's prominent leaders are often boasting that they are the people who liberated this country from the horror and the military regime of Siad Barre. well, no doubt about that we all respect and appreciate what they have done for us all but now the time and the task with which we are to overcome are totally different from the scenario they were in when they were fighting against the Siad tyranny.
The people of Somaliland are now at a different front, they are fighting on the peaceful front, on the recognition front, on the economic front, on the health front, on the education front, and they are trying to make progress on all fronts bar war front. It is irritating when you see scores of people who believe that Mr Siilaanyo can be called a legend, it was a surprise to me to hear that for I understand that a legend is a title given to a person who endured and suffered a lot for a long time for his political struggle and also fighting for his people's rights but at the same time who is naturally impartial and not politically greedy and above all who is once he reaches his goals ready to give way to other generations. Can Siilaanyo fill those criteria? yes, but not all of them, therefore he cannot be called a legend.
I am not conducting a personal vendetta against him (Siilaanyo) but the only living legend that I know in this world is Nelson Mandela as he filled all the above criteria. Will Siilaanyo step down after five years if we elect him now? Will five years at the top be enough for him? well, I doubt it, you may say that he resigned voluntarily at the summit of Bali-Gubadle in 1990. no, he did not resign, he was forced to resign by the military hardcore the so-called red flag group who surround now. Remember that, Egal may Allah rest him in peace was not a legend as well, he may have been hero or the father of the nation as some people call him now but one way or another he had a different character and a leadership skills from that of Siilaanyo and Mr Riyaale.
Although a crack is already beginning to appear I am sure that if Kulmiye is defeated they will fight internally and a raw will erupt not over the objectives and aims of the party but amazingly over the phrase of: the cup is half full or half empty.
While many families in Somaliland live below the level of subsistence UDUB's fat cats are busy with building luxurious houses for their families, buying posh expensive cars and getting their household shopping from the Emirates namely Abu Dhabi and Shariqa each week. It is patently obvious that many Somalilanders were observing Mr Riyaale's activity since he changed course on some key issues laid by the late president. Mr Riyaale ignored the fact that Ethiopia is our first and best friend hence gave priority to Djibouti, he softened our position towards the native Somaliland dissidents and invited them back to the country without them making a declaration to renounce their position. Contrary to the popular peace he unveiled a new war front in the Eastern regions close to the border between us and Puntland.
I think the most dangerous U-turn that he (Riyaale) has made so far is that there is conspicuous imbalance of power sharing between the major clans of Isaq and this the result of the president pushing himself further to one side. He may be trying to copy Egal's clever manoeuvring of the wheel of the tribal politics but he is playing with a deadly time bomb. For the first time in the history Somaliland's presidential election is now on the horizon, It is a turning point for this country but while that Kulmiye is not an alternative government to the current administration, knowing that UDUB's prospect of winning this election is highly likely is also a bleak outlook.
This government's focus is on three only area, a) the defence policy: spending two folds of the budget on the military, b) the collection of revenue: recruiting many embezzlers and putting them at customs, ports and airports, c) Intelligence service: scattering eavesdroppers all over the country to gather information. On the other hand it neglected all the other areas, the Education system was set up under the auspices of the Diaspora initiative, better healthcare still out of the question, Road signs and national traffic regulations are still a dream to the public, corruption is rife and sticks out like a sore thumb, taking measures to protect the environment is history to many, nine out of ten are unemployed yet the government has certainly no plans for them.
As the election approaches the parties are moving into top gear and it seems that there is an utter disregard of the code practice shown by Mr Siilaanyo when he began personal attacks on the president a few weeks ago, but astonishingly, when he heard those venomous words coming from Mr Siilaanyo's mouth Mr Riyaale had managed to restrain his anger and kept his mouth shut. This kind of behaviour will work for none of the candidates and it is not the path to democracy. If I believe it would work I could swallow my qualms, but, I don't, I believe the reaction to this way of campaigning will be as dangerous as the problem we trying to resolve. We are trying to turn the whole world not against us but in favour of us.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 61 March 22, 2003
Somalia And Survival In The Shadow Of The Global Economy (Part 4)
[Continued from the previous issue]
Northern Variation in Marginality
While Italian Somalia depended heavily upon subsidies to underwrite exports and maintain state agencies, officials in British Somaliland insisted that the colony remain economically `undisturbed' and get by with a smaller state apparatus compared to its southern neighbour. British administrative responses to the anti-colonial resistance of Sayyid Mohamed Abdille Hussan, the `Mad Mullah of Somaliland', whose fighters held off British expeditionary forces for twenty years from 1900 to 1920, explains some of this caution. `The expatriate administration', wrote Lewis, `consequently received stern admonitions from London that nothing was ever to be done again that could possibly provoke the Somalis'. Thus it appears that Somali regions experienced very different legacies of colonial rule, depending whether they were included in Italian or British realms.
Differences in style, however, did not translate into dramatic variation in levels of colonial intrusion in local societies. Albeit, British officers no doubt thought that direct rule and economic intervention of the Italian sort would lead to too much resistance, would be too costly, and would weaken the willingness of local leaders to collaborate with, or at least tolerate colonial rule. These concerns informed the British doctrine of Indirect Rule elsewhere on the continent, which mandated appointment of customary authorities as agents of the colonial state wherever possible. The legal and administrative goal in Somaliland was to concretize social organization, as understood by British officials. This meant that while Italian officials were trying to destroy linage control over potential workers, British authorities recognized diya-paying groups as basic political institutions. These were groups pledged to pay blood money to the families of victims of violence to resolve feuds. Diya is an element of customary law in that it regulates social interactions. But it does not concern the standing of in individual before the law so much as the relations between groups. Lewis takes these groups as integral to local society and stresses the minimal impact of colonial rule on local society, and even asserts `during the colonial period, hardly any attempt was made to artificially erect a system of Indirect Rule'. This interpretation conflicts with British colonial budgets that list stipends paid to individual headmen and observers who complained that appointees had an entrepreneurial tendency to make British colonial authority a tool for fighting their internal rivals or engaging in self-enrichment.
Colonial rule actually did considerably change Northern Somalia. The concretization of diya paying groups gave local headmen a stake in enforcing colonial ordinances, since transgressions netted them a portion of fines. It was in British colonial administrative interests to reinforce the position of headmen, since diya gave justification to British ordinances prescribing collective punishment for infractions in lieu of a large and expensive bureaucracy. The practice of collective punishment, in which any member of the diya paying group could be fined or dispossessed even if another individual was suspected of an infraction, gave headmen an interest in ensuring that diya boundaries remained static. Headmen wanted to rigidify social boundaries to make sure that individuals and families did not try to reinterpret their lineage to escape obligations incurred by people unknown or distant from them. This artificial rigidity reinforced the colonial legal notion of blood group solidarity and recruited blood groups to control `members' to avoid liability for their actions. Thus British, like Italian administration, laid foundations for less flexible definitions of clanship. This legacy also should aggravate group security dilemmas and provide opportunities for political entrepreneurs amidst conflict in the 1980s and 1990s, just as Italian and nationalist economic policies did in the south.
The British north, however, lacked the Italian south's history of state appropriation of economic assets on behalf of outsiders, at least during the colonial era. This condition continued into Barre's regime and became a major factor in shaping the local development of social regulation of violence in the 1990s and 2000s examined in detail below. Unlike every other British colony in Africa, except the Gold Coast (where resistance to colonial rule also resulted in armed struggle), colonial authorities levied no head taxes, subsisting instead on taxes on trade to pay for administration. From 1951 to 1957, average annual British Somaliland internal revenues amounted to only $860,000. The colony was distinguished as one of the few that required regular subventions from the Exchequer. London's subsidy, along with postwar Colonial Development Corporation grants, added an average of $1.2 million to the colonial budget during the 1950s. As in the Italian colony, administration required subsidies for about two-thirds of its expenditures, though British officials rejected statist pretensions of their Italian colleagues. Regardless, colonial authorities in both places saw little prospect for viability without outside financial support, and London shed its burden upon Somali Independence in 1960.
Meanwhile, British officials pursued their goals by simply foregoing economic development. Lewis, then a member of the British Somaliland civil service, reported that when he arrived in Hargeisa in 1955 about 200 senior officers ran the entire colony. An official from London charged with charting a development plan for the colony in the 1950s complained that the local administration actually resisted the whole notion of economic development. He was astounded that, taking prewar London's fears of disorder to heart, they feared social disruption and `modern' social pressures, and to avoid these evils, they actively defied postwar economic policy directives from London that local officials considered imprudent. `As a result', reports Lewis, `the traditional attitudes of pastoral Somali society were even more strongly entrenched in the north, while the south, by contrast, appeared in many respects more modernist in outlook'. Local society may have seemed `traditional' and `in comparison with other segmentary lineage societies fictional kinship seems strikingly rare', although administrative intervention in local social categories suggests otherwise.
Given these similarities, it is even more baffling that armed entrepreneurs in the south failed to build a stable political order after 1991 while armed northern leaders found ways to manage conflict, build cross cutting alliances and rein in violence without the aid of outside force or subsidies. As evidence below shows, colonial experiences were not decisive in shaping contemporary identity and political organization, though they are important for their significant influence on shaping social categories and the social distribution of resources. The key variable shaping these outcomes lies in the nature of rule in post-colonial Somalia, specifically the extent to which local elites either joined with or were excluded from political networks that dominated commerce, as the fate of commercial farms and state economic development policies in southern Somalia showed.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 61 March 22, 2003
Drug - The Double Edged Knife
This is an article for people. It is an attempt to dispel the secrecy, which surrounds medical treatment today. People are fed up with being treated as objects by doctors who often do not care about, or can't discuss in easy-to-understand language, the medicines they prescribe. Instead of encouraging their patients to actively participate in their treatment, many doctors prefer to keep their patients in ignorance. "Take as directed" is often the most information patients receive about the chemicals they are expected to put in their bodies.
There is no such thing as a safe drug. Each medication is a double-edged knife, with a good side and a bad side. Successful treatment is a careful balance between the beneficial and harmful effects, hopefully weighted in favor of the beneficial. Unfortunately, just the opposite is often the case. The original disease may be less of a problem than the reaction to treatment.
Too many drugs are prescribed in our pill-popping society. The evidence that we are overmedicated is voluminous. It is clear from the distribution of popular kinds of medicines that the quantities which are sold far outnumber. . .The evidence for overmedication also includes the proportion of total prescribing made up of drugs for which the practitioner has only a probable, possible, or placebo expectation of success.
Although modern medical science has developed highly sophisticated methods of diagnosis and surgery, the average physician still relies almost exclusively on drug therapy in the treatment of illness. The typical doctor gives at least one drug to 75% of his patients. In fact, we have reached a point where a patient feels cheated if he is not given a prescription for something when he leaves a doctor's office. What distinguishes our modern-day practitioners from their medical ancestors is not so much the great quantity of new agents at their disposal (though that in itself is a gigantic difference), but rather their almost total reliance upon this form of treatment. Today's overworked doctors, in fact, have little choice but to turn to quick, impersonal remedies.
This article is not meant to replace a trip to the doctor, but rather to explain in an understandable way just what those pills your doctor prescribes really do. The medical profession has too long ignored people's curiosity and concern about their illnesses and the drugs which they are supposed to take. Unfortunately, people have too readily assumed that they were incapable of understanding "medical language". It is time medicine was demystified. One need not be familiar with the gigantic words doctors so commonly employ to describe the best treatment for pyrosis (heartburn) or cephalagia (headache). Nor it is necessary to know the chemical structure of your medications to understand how it works.
Drug-taking errors are far more common than anyone would imagine. An investigation carried out revealed that 58% of those people studied made mistakes in the way they took their medication - either too much, not enough, or at the wrong time. Doctors like to blame their uncooperative patients for these errors, but according to these researches, the problem really lies with the physician for not communicating the instructions simply and clearly.
The true goal of this article, then, is to provide people with basic information regarding the potential hazards of drugs as well as of those medications physicians prescribe most often. My hope is to enable people to understand how the medicines they take work in their bodies and how to approach simple medical problems before, during, and after professional medical intervention. It may help save you some money, but more important, it may help save your life. To be continued next week.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 61 March 22, 2003
Tribute To Mothers
Those of you who still have your mothers with you, this is something to ponder and to witness as your life unfolds. Those of you who, no longer have your mothers with you, this may be something that sparks a memory for you. Those of you who are mothers, this is something for you to think about as you move through life with your children.
Those who have no children, this is something to think about when you encounter children along your life's path - you know mothering is not relegated to a biological parent only!!!
The young mother set her foot on the path of life. "Is this the long way?" she asked. And the guide said: "Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning." But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way, and bathed them in the clear streams; and the sun shone on them, and the young Mother cried, "Nothing will ever be lovelier than this." Then the night came, and the storm, and the path was dark, and the children shook with fear and cold, and the mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, "Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come." And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary. But at all times she said to the children, "A little patience and we are there." So the children climbed, and when they reached the top they said, "Mother, we would not have done it without you." And the mother, when she lay down at night looked up at the stars and said, "This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage.
Today, I have given them strength." And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth, clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled, and the mother said: "Look up. Lift your eyes to the light." And the children looked and saw above the clouds an everlasting glory, and it guided them beyond the darkness. And that night the Mother said, "This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children the awareness of the lmighty." And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the mother grew old and she was little and bent. But her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage. And when the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill, and beyond they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide. And mother said: "I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them." And the children said, " You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates." And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her. And they said: "We cannot see her, but she is with us still. A Mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living presence." Your Mother is always with you.
She's the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street, she's the smell of bleach in your freshly laundered socks, she's the cool hand on your brow when you're not well. Your Mother lives inside your laughter. And she's crystallized in every tear drop. She's the place you came from, your first home; and she's the map you follow with every step you take. She's your first love and your first heartbreak,and nothing on earth can separate you. Not time, not space. .not even death!
TO ALL OUR MOTHERS. MAY WE NEVER TAKE YOU FOR GRANTED: O Allah, forgive us and our parents, and reward them with the finest reward. O Allah, elevate their position in the hereafter and this Dunya; make that which befalls them an expiation for their sins. O Allah, grant them residence in Firdaus, the highest level of Jannah, with the Prophets, the Siddeeqeen, and the Martyrs. Ameen.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 61 March 22, 2003
Open Letter To Ahmed Mohamed `Siilanyo'
"Circumstances make man, not man circumstances." - Mark Twain
Dear Siilanyo,
Sir, my name is Dhimbiil and I am a patriot of Somaliland. I believe in writing to our leaders about my country whenever I feel the Republic is undergoing difficult times. This tradition of writing and debating our public issues on a broad national canvass has had - as you are well aware - a sterling tradition in our country for a long time. This tradition was put to the sword by the dictatorship that we overthrew. I believe in this tradition and that is why I writing to you.
Sir, I am worried about my country as you are. Your current preparations through the political party you founded to contest all levels of government, demonstrates your commitment to leading this country through this intricate and complicated process that we are trying to root into our social and political landscape. In a past `open letter' I urged you to do this during the time of the late president. I am glad that you have taken this political route of asking the people of Somaliland to vote for your candidacy and your political party - even though this has happened after the transition. No repetition of your achievements is needed here, nor is there any need to dredge up you record; suffice to say that you are a political giant in a field of ordinary politicians.
This perception has the added responsibility of an elder whose weight in our social and political matters carries authority in the country when it comes to warning the nation on the ways of humanity. Quite recently, you have reiterated this responsibility in the international press. Statesmanship sir as you are quite aware has its responsibilities. Let me at the outset set the record straight: I am not a member of your political party. However, if you were just another ordinary politician, I would not be writing to you because I know you believe in this country and you were part of the movement that liberated this country and therefore sir, people listen to what you have to say.
The central political issue of our time - given the experience of Africa - is to find a political process that is, by and large, legitimate. The record of African political illegitimacy need not be recorded here, suffice to say that, thirty years of lost opportunity and thirty years of continental dictatorships, gross human rights violations, and massive corruption has left the majority of the countries that make up this continent reeling from the subsequent suffering and torment. Africa has become synonymous with autocracy and military rule; it has become synonymous with corruption and massive starvation, and finally with civil war and genocide.
As I write, the military has taken over in the Central African Republic; reminding Africa that the struggle for democracy and Africa has just begun and this particular example will serve to remind the continent that the forces of regression and military dictatorships continue to plot against popular democracy. Somaliland will hopefully condemn this practice of illegitimate politics and hope that the people in that country demand a return to civilian rule immediately.
Indeed, right here in our neighborhood - the horn of Africa - another dictator has risen from the ashes of the Eritrean revolution, Issayas Efowrki is holding our sisterly country of Eritrea hostage, he has sent leading members of that country, including the Vice -President, the head of the Armed Forces, much of the cabinet, elders and leading journalist into detention without any access to the writ of habeas corpus. Their whereabouts are un-known. Half the diplomatic corps of Eritrea have resigned, Eritrea in a word, has been sent to the dark ages. We share with Eritrea a struggle against dictatorship and oppression and the idea of self-determination. The regression in Eritrea is a dark and ominous sign of the continuing betrayal of the peoples struggle and their rights to democracy.
In Djibouti we have in Ismael Omar Gelle a tin pot dictator who lives on foreign aid while plotting against this country. In Sudan the military holds the country to ransom and democracy has been exiled, in Ethiopia our closest ally and neighbor, the Meles Zenawi government has yet to live up to its promise of direct multi-party politics. Kenya is the only country in our neighborhood that has achieved multi-party elections and is on its way to rescuing Kenya from the corruption of the last regime. We live, to say the least, in the toughest neighborhood in Africa.
The people of Somaliland have been through their own struggle, the memory of this conflict is still fresh in the popular imagination. The Somali National Movement (SNM) which you served as its fourth and longest serving chairman, fought and defeated one of the largest and best equipped armies in tropical Africa. The dictatorship, backed by the then Soviet Union and arms shipments by the Reagan administration, was confronted by a movement of young men and women who defied conventional military logic by directly confronting the dictatorship. They liberated us from a tyranny that we believed would last forever.
The dictatorship's power was everywhere, its dread and might at close quarters, its spies and hanger-on in our hamlets and tea-shops, in our towns chasing after our young men in the mid-day sun to fight "invaders", the NSS and the Hangash were everywhere, the dictatorship seemed like invincible police state. The social and cultural fabric of society had been invaded by a cancer of division and suspicion based on the dictatorships strategy of divide and rule. Thugs and petty thieves posed as `governors' and `ambassadors' the entire bureaucracy had `PhD's' from the university of Villa Somalia, the dictatorship, to put mildly, put a knife to the center and things fell apart.
The Somali state, and its most senior officers, in its highest hour of treachery, plotted the genocide of Somaliland, not unlike the Rwandan government and the recent genocide in that tragic country. Had not the people of Somaliland fought the dictatorship, this country would have been wiped out of the memory this crooked part of Africa. During the darkest times of this dictatorship the people of this country, ordinary men and women, military officers and political leaders from Somaliland committed themselves to their heritage of rebellion against oppression, and regained their humanity.
Once liberated the human condition set it. Self-indulgence, greed, ostentation, deceit, false pride, false consciousness, and the personalization of politics took over as politics in the early days of our first government. In fighting and factionalism based on-pure deceit; a criminology that was learnt from the late dictator became part of our politics. Clan representation, a calculus that defies logic and indeed democracy became our political system. The final outrage was the betrayal of the country itself and the ensuing conflagration.
The civil war; one of the most traumatic and darkest incidents in this country, where brother was set upon brother, and father against nephew, and mothers against sons, where those who liberated the country pounded each other with the arms surrendered by the forces of the dictatorship, is a stain on the moral sheet of our politicians. They, our leaders, collectively, bare ultimate responsibility for this outrage on the people of Somaliland. A people it should be remembered who sacrificed everything to free this country. The people of Somaliland have forgiven each other, and have learned a very important lesson: no politician is going to lead them down the path of war ever again; Somali Landers have become a mature people who believe in peace, order, and good government. This leadership from the people must be an example to our politicians and must be a lesson to the country on the pitfalls of national consciousness. The people of Somaliland are an enduring and resilient people. The character and will of Somaliland is second to none. We are as well a democratic people, a race that has been called fierce and republican. We are in word: a people with predisposition to democracy.
The late Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal left this country with a legacy, that legacy is the constitution of Somaliland. Before the constitution came into force, the country was on edge, the social infrastructure was searing, and the nervousness in the country was at a high pitch. Two social forces and two diametrically opposed visions of the country opposed each other. Every Somalilander was anxious; will the political process be transformed into armed conflict? Or will the politics of the country be settled in a peaceful and democratic process? The second President of this country and the leading politician of his time, died as Somaliland was creeping closer to conflict. The death of the President was mourned by the whole people; it was also a cathartic time. The one man who represented such political heat within society was no more, the Shiir Beeled system that brought the late president to power passed on with him as the constitution came into force with the ascendance of the new president. The political template of the country followed the will of the people and foundational change has occurred.
Sensing the end of a certain period of history and the beginning of another the people of this country went to the graveside of their son, Mohamed Hajji Ibrahim Egal and said goodbye forgiving this president as is customary in Islam and praying for his soul to rest in that eternal peace in the heavens. No one had ever seen such a gathering in Somaliland as the one witnessed in Berbera, the president had meant a lot to the people, and they were witness to the end of a something great and the birth of something new. A new era had begun.
Sir, you were part of that government and its record as was this president. However, you have also chosen to participate in this new era, this new era of transition, here is where I believe you have a responsibility, a duty, to caution our citizens on the transition to democracy and many pitfalls that seem to widen as the days go by. Your added responsibility of a leader of a political party need not greatly confuse the two roles. There is a role for you play as a leading statesman in the country and your role as a candidate for the Presidency.
Sir, elections are a pillar of democracy. Elections tend also to cause at times, and in the heat of passions, confusion and bedlam. The people of Somaliland no doubt will vote peacefully and with dignity, they have done so twice now. The elections for the presidency is different, it is the election of the highest official in the country. It is the symbol of the people of Somaliland. Sir, recently, the fractionalization that we are famous for has reared it ugly head, political parties and personalities are switching parties and beliefs in record numbers. Parties are crumbling and coalescing into larger ones. This is healthy, but only to a point. For, the underlying traditional structures will be appealed to, by this process, to the detriment of the issues of this election, which are basically: experience or change. The message must go out that political parties represent beliefs and not simply a coalition of traditional forces. Recent movements in this direction ought to be condemned and defrocked as a game of politicians that the people of this country are tired of. The uncertainty of what the voter will do is the beauty of democracy. When the voting ends only one party will stand and its leader will assume power. This in itself is a great victory for Somaliland, for the first time in recent memory voters will determine their leaders.
Sir, I believe it is your responsibility to add your voice in this election process to those progressive forces that want to make sure that violence will not be an option after the election. That the political party that loses will accept the results of a fair and free election; that your voice will be clear during and after the election on issues concerning the peace; that you will personally ask the country to observe the dignity of calm and patience as we participate in these historic elections; that your voice will not only be a voice for the political party KULMIYE but a voice for Somaliland; that, if the people of Somaliland elect someone other than yourself you will be the first to legitimize - when free and fair - the new president of this republic, an expectation that is not only directed to you but to all the contenders; in a short: that you sir irrespective of the results will remain a pillar of calm and dignity and a symbol of reason to the people of Somaliland in these dramatic days.
I wish you the best of luck in the coming elections.
God save Democracy
God save Somaliland
A. Mohamed Ali Hashi `Dhimbiil' Dallo57us@yahoo.com
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 61 March 22, 2003
UDUB and KULMIYE Candidates are Sides of the Same Coin" - Faysal Ali Warabe, UCID Party
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 61 March 22, 2003
Lupe's Sister
Nick DiMartino is a Seattle author of three published novels, all ghost stories, and over twenty produced plays. This true story was told to him by a nurse at Swedish Hospital during his overnight stay there following an emergency hernia operation.
"You don't believe in ghosts, do you?" said the night nurse. "I know that ghosts are real. I know because something happened to me."
"You saw a ghost?"
"No," she said. "I never saw her. But there was a ghost, all right.
"I come from a family of five sisters. When my mother died, my eldest sister took over. She became our little mother, our mamacita. She was a bit of a bully. We four must have been something to handle. But one of my angriest memories is the way she would discipline us.
"She was always after us for something we didn't clean. Or catching us in the middle of something we shouldn't do. When she lost her patience with us, she'd start swinging. With the others she'd spank and whack and paddle. But for me it was always one thing."
She made the motion suddenly with her free hand. It was like an ax blow.
"The chop on the back of the neck. Me, she always hit from behind, a chop between the shoulders, all of a sudden, to try to scare me. To try to make me cry.
"You never had any sisters, did you? I can tell. Having sisters changes you forever, even though you grow up and go your separate paths.
"She married first, and went to live in Santa Fe. One of my other sisters bought the house. We all go back every year for the holidays, drag our husbands along. That's the only time I saw my oldest sister, every Christmas.
"Last year I went to a nursing conference in Santa Fe, and I thought at first I could go visit my sister. Her husband was dead. She lived alone. I'd never been to her apartment. Once I got to the conference, however, I changed my mind. She lived farther away than I thought. I would have to take a bus from the hotel. My schedule was too tight. Besides, she didn't realize I was in Santa Fe. She would never know.
"I didn't go visit her.
"A week after the nursing conference I got a phone call that my sister was dying. Of course, I took the first flight out. I got there just as they were pulling the plug. I never got a chance to say goodbye.
"I didn't cry at the funeral. I couldn't. I was so wracked with guilt that everything knotted up inside me. Everyone else was sobbing. Me, I was a rock. After the graveside service my second sister took me aside. She is a curandera, someone who studies the old ways of medicine and healing. She could see something was wrong with me.
"Forgive yourself, Lupe,' she said. She could tell, just by looking at me. `You didn't know it was your last chance to see her. You love her. She knows it.'
"But I couldn't forgive myself. And I couldn't cry. I was miserable all day after the funeral. That night I slept upstairs in my old childhood bedroom. I was catching a flight home in the morning.
"It was late, everyone was in bed, the house was silent. I heard something in the hallway outside, on the landing between the bedrooms. I went out, thinking maybe it was one of my sisters, maybe she couldn't sleep, might need to talk, to cry. No one was there. I stood in the dark hall, trying not to make a sound, holding my breath. I couldn't see anyone. Then I heard someone come up behind me. Wham! I felt it, hard, no mistake.
"A chop at the back of my neck.
"I almost fell over. I spun around. No one was there. I was alone in the hall. Suddenly the tears came at last. I knew my sister had forgiven me. She had made me cry."
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 61 March 22, 2003. Press Release
UDUB Reception in Washington DC
Yassin opened the reception with prayers and read verses from the Quran. He reminded all of us the importance of praying, reading the Quran and following the teachings of the prophet.
Yassin also touched on his support for UDUB and thanked for those who made the effort to organize this reception. He said "our people have chosen UDUB before and they will do so again".
The speakers touched on how important it is that we help our people to protect and nurture the current democratic process, which will help our people leave behind the era of clan dominated process and enter into a democratic process where the will of the people determines the leadership of the Republic of Somaliland.
Ibrahim Warsame had known Dahir Rayale over 30 years, starting from school days and he talked about Dahir Rayale's leadership quality. Ibrahim told a story about president Dahir Rayaale when he was in high school. He talked about how Rayale as a young man decided that he needs to work. He started working at a very young age to help his family and still completed his school. This shows Dahir Rayale's character, work ethic and strong leadership. Those are qualities we need in our next president.
Mohamed Hassan encouraged everyone to get involved and help the democratic process in Somaliland by supporting the candidate you believe will provide good leadership to our people and country. He said it is our responsibility to know the differences in political parties and their leadership in order to choose a candidate to support. He repeated that it is important we should not choose a party based on the make up of its clan, but rather what they stand for. He talked about his experience in traveling to Somaliland in 2002 and that we in the Diaspora seem to focus on clan more than our people inside the country.
The people overwhelmingly voted for UDUB in the local government elections, because they believe it represents their interest. That was few months ago. The people will vote for UDUB in April 14, because UDUB is for the all the citizens of Somaliland.
The people will reject those who discriminate on the basis of clan, Rashid said "UDUB is the only party in Somaliland that represents all of Somaliland citizens. It is the only party that can lead the nation under the current circumstance". He also reiterated Dahir Rayale's accomplishments while in office, starting with normalizing relationship with Djibouti to open border traveling and commerce between the two countries, making his government's relationship with Ethiopia stronger, establishing new relationship with Senegal, making relationship with South Africa stronger, for the first time establishing direct relationship with EU and UK government, fighting corruption in his own government, and improving services of his government by visiting government offices.
We all remember the violent confrontation between Egal and traditional leaders and the opposition parties calling for national conference to elect the next president instead of elections. Dahir Rayaale's leadership in the last 9 months prevailed where today the opposition are contesting in the elections and traditional leaders ended their confrontation peacefully.
Bashir congratulated Somaliland and its people for showing political maturity and accomplishing so much in few years. He also credited Dahir Rayale for some of that success.
He said "much has been said about Dahir Rayaale tonight and I don't have much to add to it other than to say that I'm convinced he is the right man for the job and that he will provide a good leadership to our people and country. He repeatedly said "Somaliland ha noolaato, Somaliland ha guulaysato" and everyone chanted with him "Somaliland ha noolaato, Somaliland ha guulaysato".
The community members from Baltimore, Northern Virginia and Washington DC have attended the reception and this was a night to celebrate Somaliland and everyone was proud to be Somaliland citizen.
The night was as much celebration for UDUB as it was for Somaliland and the people who attended this celebration represented all the regions of Somaliland.
The community was proud of UDUB and the leadership of president Dahir Rayaale Kahin and everyone here believed that our people in Somaliland will once more trust UDUB and recognize that it is indeed the only party that is not based on clan and survive successive leadership change. If the other parties lose their leaders, no one expects them to survive such a loss. The community recognizes that UDUB passed that test and our people recognizes that the future of the country is too important to trust on other parties whose future and viability is not certain at this time.
The reception was concluded by Saad Noor who compared Somaliland to most of the African nations. He said "Most of them are ruled by dictators and have not reached where Somaliland democracy is today". He went on to say that most of those nations have received independence in the 60's similar to Somaliland before the unity with Somalia. Saad Noor is the Somaliland representative to USA.
The community members who attended this reception shared strong support for UDUB party and have confidence in Dahir Rayale's leadership. Our people inside the country have given their mandate to UDUB before and this community believes that the people will vote for UDUB again.
Rashid Garuf, Washington DC, March 15, 2003
Addis Tribune (Ethiopia) - AAGM, March 21, 2003/ (Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CHRONICLES: THE CAMPAIGN - PART V
Presidential elections are scheduled in Somaliland for April 14, next month. This series of articles will provide an in-depth analysis of the election. Two diaspora-based Somalilanders, a political scientist (Dhimbiil) and Psychiatrist (Jowhar), will provide the analysis on alternate weeks.
The Greatest Day So Far
In Hargaysa, the capital city of Somaliland last Jan. 31 was a sunny day, like all others days in this geographical region. The elite of the city woke up to a bold headline in their English-language weekly proclaiming that President " Riyaale is Unqualified and Unfit to Rule."
The author of the article, Ali Gulaid, is a prominent Somalilander and a supporter of the opposition party KULMIYE. Gulaid did his homework diligently. He reviewed the academic background of the president and found it wanting, he checked on the president's experience in life and found it uninspiring even disturbing and he evaluated the president's current achievement in office and found it deficient, maybe even perilous. He paid particular attention to the fact that the president served as an officer of the feared National Security Service in Siyad Barre's regime and found that record "undesirable to say the least". The author then juxtaposed this CV of the president to that of the two competing candidates Silaanyo (KULMIYE) and Faisal (UCID) and found the president not only unqualified but also unfit to rule.
He concluded " but Rayaale's experience under the Siyad Gestapo, the indelible record of being loyal to the butcher to the last minute and the allegations of crimes against humanity documented by Africa Watch are serious enough to disqualify him for seeking the Presidency. Additionally, Rayaale's high-school level of education, lack of political exposure and understanding of geopolitics, inability to inspire and articulate the vision of the nation makes him unqualified to lead the country. But more importantly, his current record demonstrated his poor judgment, lack of confidence, indecisiveness and incompetence."
What interests me here is what followed; a loud and rancorous debate, a political storm pitting the supporters of the president against his opponents right in the middle of the political street, a washing of one's dirty linen in public so to speak of who did what in life and to whom, and an airing of tribal sensitivities laying bare hidden wounds to the antiseptic and healing effect of daylight.
What interests me also is what did not follow. The government of the day did not try to rob the public of its right to know and to reach its own enlightened conclusions in this national issue. The ever-present repressive inclinations of the African State did not rear its ugly head and no one vilified the press, tried to control it or threatened its freedom in anyway. On the contrary, the press gained prominence and won the hearts of many for covering a delicate debate in a sensitive manner that avoided sensationalism, tribal rubble-rousing and overkill.
Somalilanders living in the West, under the shade of freedoms fought for and built by generations past, are energized by the winds of an open society visiting their homeland, the place of their birth. The president may not be qualified to rule but last January 31, definitely qualified as the best day of the campaign trial so far.
Interestingly enough, what was designed to be a fatal blow to the presidential aspiration of Riyaale may have served as a booster for it. The free public debate that followed, unencumbered by government intervention, became a demonstration of the president's achievement. We only hope that this president and those who will follow him will learn from this experience that siding with freedom of speech pays well and that the truth shall always set them free.
This brings to mind an alternative hypothesis. What Somaliland needs, what the African State needs, may be, just may be a vulnerable president who cannot dominate the political discourse. Such vulnerability will allow the public a breathing space to grow and assert its rights, it will be the recipe for nurturing national institutions other than the presidency (Judiciary, legislative, Electoral Commission etc.) and it will allow other distinguished nationals to serve up to their optimal capacity, uninhibited by petty rivalry from the top office. Indeed it may precisely be because of this president's vulnerability that other national stars are shinning so bright. Edna, Jirdeh, Adami are some of the eminent personalities that come to mind as Somalilanders of national stature who are actively putting their own stamp on the evolution of the nation.
Given the record of the candidates, it is reasonable to postulate that Somalilanders in the coming presidential election of next April 14, may be actually choosing between the benefits of competency and those of vulnerability. And, of course, there will be a price to pay for each course of action. All decisions carry a price of their own and perfection is not an attribute of the human.
But old habits die hard. Important members of the ruling party have difficulty learning that their best electoral interest is in championing the cause of freedom. The governor of Sahil (Berbera) region is among this selected few. A journalist of the outspoken daily (Jamhuria), Mr. Mohamed-Biid wrote an expose on the regional government's tardiness and inefficiency. The outraged governor ordered the arrest of the journalist on the basis of "only the presidency can supervise my work". The public and the press reacted with vigor and the journalist was released forthwith. Somaliland also has a highly partisan Ministry of Information that occasionally seems to function like George Orwell's Ministry of Truth. The optimism of the moment may lead to complacency. Vigilance will prove to be prudent in these early days of intoxication with freedom.
Days of Testing the Constitutio
Somaliland's constitution reflects the tender age of the nation. It evolved from the national charter of 1993 and remains to be a document that has a long way to go before it reaches maturity. Yet it has to rise to the occasion as it put to test again and again now, when it is still in its infancy. Any breakdown, any stalemate will be followed by untold consequences. Somaliland's Supreme Court had to deal with a number of legal questions regarding the elections. We will mention two.
A number of politicians, unaffiliated with three official political parties expressed an interest in standing for the April 14 presidential race independently. Prominent among them is Ms. Fozia H. Aden, a major figure in Somaliland's cultural and civil societies. Fozia actually announced her candidacy and started her campaign. Other outstanding politicians were on the brink of announcing their own candidacy.
There was a political consensus that only the three main political parties could nominate candidates for the presidency, the constitution itself however was vague on the point. Allowing independent candidates threatened to open a Pandora's box. Independent candidates could potentially lead to a political inflation. In a tribal society this raises the risk of each clan getting its own candidate, a process that carries the risk of nullifying a state's claim to being the sole source of political authority and that may eventually lead to the fragmentation of society along clan and sub-clan lines.
The matter was taken to court and last February 27, the Supreme Court made public its decision that only official political parties have the right to nominate candidates for the presidential election. The potential independent candidates were irate. Eventually they came around and expressed their acceptance, albeit grudgingly, of the court's decision.
In another development the court ordered the candidates for the presidency and vice presidency to register with it their financial assets as dictated by article 82 of the constitution. This simple statement brings forth the fears of Somalilanders that their elected leaders will rob them blind if given half the chance. They may still do but, at very least, this represents a legal effort towards prevention of official corruption.
A Day for KULMIYE: February 25, 2003
The political party KULMIYE is a major contender for the presidency of Somaliland. I have previously described its leader as a great man with a stellar record in public service. KULMIYE elected a vice presidential candidate last February 25. Abdirahman Aw Cali became the party's candidate for the post. KULMIYE could not have made a better choice. And a ticket that was already strong became formidable, as close as you can get to unbeatable.
Few Somalilanders need any introduction to Abdirahman Aw Cali. If Silaanyo CV is intimidating, Abdirahman's goes a notch or two in the same direction. He was after all Egal's Vice-President for the latter's first term in office. Abdirahman has been a permanent fixture in Somaliland's politics in the last two decades. He spent time in all the possible roles of a national leader. He was a fierce liberator, he was just and fearless in governance and he was effective in opposition. The Vice-presidential candidate is a trained engineer by trade. But he is widely read and well informed in culture, politics and philosophy. Before and after everything else Abdirahman Aw Ali is a democrat at heart who would abide by the ballot and by the rules of the political process. This is good for Somaliland.
In spite of the appearance of invincibility this ticket has yet to show that it can assemble a collision of clans, sub-clans, hopes and fears that could win over the masses to their side. The real danger they face is that of arrogance and underestimation of the president; a man who has done so well, so far with the masses, contrary to the expectations of KULMIYE's talking heads.
SOMALIA: Presidential contender urges support for Somaliland poll
"The international community is now spending so much money on Eldoret [Somali peace talks, now moved to Nairobi] and what is going on there?," he said. "If the international community could give a fraction of those resources to help the election system in Somaliland, that would be worthwhile, and I am sure the world would be very proud of what we are doing."
Silaanyo is one of two opposition candidates running against incumbent president Dahir Rayale Kahin in polls scheduled for 14 April.
Somaliland, a former British protectorate, declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 after the collapse of the Siad Barre regime, but has not been internationally recognised. In the last decade it has moved away from conflict, while the rest of Somalia has been locked in civil strife. Last December, Somaliland's first multiparty elections at local level passed off peacefully.
If elected president, Silaanyo said his priorities would be maintaining peace, the quest for international recognition and the development of Somaliland.
Seeking international recognition is a top priority for all parties running in the elections. There is also a political consensus on the refusal to join the Somali peace talks, currently taking place in Kenya. Somali delegates at those talks continue to press for Somaliland to come. "The one thing they are agreed upon is not to allow Somaliland to be independent," Silaanyo said. "That's a very, very negative thing. I think it would have been much more fruitful, useful, intelligent, positive, if they were to say - congratulations to our brothers in the north, or in Somaliland, we wish them well."
Source: Togdheer.com, Mar 17, 2003 To Kulmiye Supporters In Abroad By Ibrahim Mahamoud Suleiman
As a Somalilander Diasporas, I am gasping to get a good and effective government in my homeland country (Som/Land). After a long observation and weighing up the all political stance of the three presidential contenders parties it's becoming increasingly obvious that the only one which reveals overall qualities and experience is Kulmiye Party with its candidates Ahmed Mahamed Mahamoud (Siilaanyo) and Cabdirahman Aw-cali. President and vice president respectively.
To be more precise the Kulmiye Party is the youngest of all the three parties as well as the most flourishing and rapidly growing party. It is the one with the biggest supporters on abroad, when I said on abroad I mean those Som/landers who live in the countries we all envy to be in, And I would be very much right if I say those are the ones who have tasted so called 'democracy' and in a certain level have matured from tribally (qabyaalad). Also it can be detected from the members of the party that it is clean from tribe connections.
It will not be easy to get rid off the current and dubious party UDUB, for it has the power using all the government resources, i.e. medias, money, vehicles and more importantly people. The people do not understands the democracy and anyone has any connection with the government thinks that if he/she votes against the UDUB will loose that connection so he/she must vote for UDUB and try to get as many as other people to vote with them. Luckily this people has a pedigree of shaking off from the ineffective parties as we have all witnessed what happened to old ruling party of Somalia XHKS.
However if you are a Kulmiye Party Supporter and sharing same ideas with me it's necessary to make a change a real change and improve our country by electing the right party with the right people. Now it's time to act decisively. The opportunities are there at the moment to be grasped with both hands. Our country and its people deserve to be in a better state. If you are with me in this article, you must have a sense of what acts or change is he (myself) talking about. If that's is the case, here is the answer.
As our people in Som/land are heavily dependent on their relatives on overseas financially and advices, it seems very easy for us (qurbajoog) to communicate with them expressing our ideas, involving the campaign, pulling them out of the old and distractive fashioned tribally (qabyalad). And anyone of us who can manage to take time off from the work or least likely from the families has to make the little journey to join the liberation party (kulmiye) while the campaign goes on to the deciding day 14/04/03. It will be asked, were you there? Be the one who gives the affirmative answer. YES.
All in all I am very much hope the people (Somalilanders) will choose and elect the suitable party (kulmiye) to lead them from this bewilderment.
Ibrahim Mahamoud Suleiman, London
SOMALIA: Somaliland reiterates it will not join peace talks
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the region's information minister, Abdullahi Duale, Somaliland was not a party to the Somali conflict. "There are no Somaliland military forces operating on Somali territory," the statement said, adding that Somaliland had "refrained from interfering in Somalia's internal affairs despite numerous provocations". The minister was reacting to media reports that the Kenyan chairman of the talks, Bethwel Kiplagat, was awaiting an invitation to Somaliland to discuss the peace process. Some Somali leaders attending the peace talks in Kenya have, in the past, proposed that extra delegates be allocated to represent Somaliland and have repeatedly called for the region to be brought into the process.
Duale's statement said that the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which is mediating the talks, was aware of Somaliland's stand on the issue. "Somaliland will not take part in the IGAD peace process nor send observers unless accorded by IGAD the status due to a sovereign state," the statement stressed. "When a legitimate, representative government is established in Somalia, the GOS [Government of Somaliland] is prepared to enter into talks with that government concerning the nature of the relationship between the two states," it added. The minister concluded by saying that Somaliland regretted attempts by some governments to utilise the peace process "as a means of undermining Somaliland's stability, sovereignty and territorial integrity".
Somaliland, a former British protectorate, declared unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, but has received no international recognition.
BBC Worldwide Monitoring, March 17, 2003 (HornAfrik Online text web site, 16 Mar 03)
Somaliland: Two opposition parties merge ahead of presidential election
Source: Somaliland Times , ISSUE 60, March 15, 2003
Somalia And Survival In The Shadow Of The Global Economy - Part 3
[Continued from the previous issue]
Foreign aid enhanced the importance of commercial farms in elite political strategies and increased the disruptive impact of state `development' strategies on the local population. Foreign support for the three largest commercial farms in the Jubba area during the period 1976 to the late 1980s totaled at least $325 million, while direct state aid exceeded $50 million annually, a considerable sum given the country's GDP of $1.7 billion in 1987. Privatization of enterprises, begun in 1981, reinforced close ties between political power and one of the country's primary economic assets. A 1975 land tenure law expanded the assets available for patronage through giving legal means to civil servants and businessmen who could get government backing to claim village lands that were not included in commercial farms. Registration of titles became `a political rather than an economic process' reported a foreign technical expert. `The successful individual is one that has contacts in the bureaucracy, knowledge of how to "work the system", clan and personal ties with high government officials', at the expense of the mostly Gosha small holders who held land on the basis of custom and lineage ties solidified through marriage. The land grab in southern areas alienated a further 6,000 ha in addition to the 16,000 ha lost to plantations, increasing the importance of this region as a source of political patronage beyond its value as a recipient of foreign aid, and put most of the region's economy under control of powerful outsiders.
The top-down merging of political networks and official economic policies destroyed local customary authorities' capacity to control resources. It also helped determine the contours of conflict in the 1990s, since it drew into the region outside elites of mixed origins, several of whom became important political actors in the river valleys by virtue of their positions in the hierarchy of the military dictatorship in the capital. Their economic power was tied to the coercive power of the state. As state control diminished in the 1980s, they developed their own capacity to act as political entrepreneurs to recruit and field armed forces. The significance of colonial and nationalist policies, however, lay in providing these actors with tools to become violent entrepreneurs as these policies weakened local capacity to resist this process.
Southern river valleys consequently became a site of frequent conflict since 1991. Control over major plantations played key roles in the strategies of two major militia leaders in the early 1990s. General Mohammed Aydeed, who had held positions in the government in the 1980s, and his backers provided land in the river valleys on which disaffected mooryaan (`dispossessed ones') could settle. Aydeed used the attractions of this region to recruit followers from his own Habr Gidir clan to join his faction of the United Somali Congress (USC). Other strongmen from the Barre regime saw a strategy of survival in southern farms. Aydeed's principal businessman backer, Mogadishu-based Osman Ato, organized the looting of farm equipment, then provided backing to set up militia-controlled plantations. Ato already had a base in the area, since he had been allocated a farm in the 1980s that his sister ran. Barre's former defense minister, Adan Abdullahi Nur `Gabeeyow' also used southern farming lands as a patronage resource of his own once his president had fled to attract and organize fighters, first after teaming up with Col Omar Jess, and continuing after he switched to the side of General Mohammed Said Hersi `Morgan', another Barre crony and head of the Somali National Front (SNF).
Continued exports of bananas to Europe provided hard currency to entrepreneurs, estimated to total $26 million in 1990, and still generated export incomes in the range of $6 to $8 million in 1994. These resources and opportunities drew in more mooryaan from other regions for refuge, employment, and food. Col. Omar Jess, for example, used the southern region as a base for displaced members of his Ogadeen clansmen who had fought in an earlier conflict once Jess recognized in 1990 that his presidential patron was going to fall. Thus the report of an aid worker in 1995 reflected the presence of large numbers of armed outsiders: `In lower Jubba, the district commanders and militia are the only structure of authority. .there is no civilian administration. Osman Ato's farm is where the main commander is based'. Despite the absence of state-like administration, this merging of economic and coercive power shrank the social space for indigenous resistance. Defensive groups of local farmers from the Shebelle and Jubba valleys such as the Somali African Muki Organization (SAMO) have remained weak because they lack access to hard currency with which to buy weapons and cannot recruit their own mooryaan from distant urban areas or other battlefields like their much stronger opponents.
This organization of conflict hardly counts as a societal consensus on virtues of clan politics. Instead it follows from a colonial, then national labour policy that undermined local customary contract arrangements and political institutions based upon elders' control of marriage and land allocation. These changes indicate that woman once played an important role in maintaining flexibility in lineage boundaries and thus in political arrangements. As outsiders disrupted local matrimonial customs, then seized local farms, local people were unable to control enough resources to oppose these interlopers. Indigenous people and newcomers alike became `stabilized' around rigid lineage identities as a consequence of the coercion, then outright violence of economic policies that created security dilemmas for entire communities. Denied means or incentives to make local political accommodations, newcomers petitioned patrons in the capital to hold onto their assets and positions. Eventually they had to seek protection from clan militias that also served the same entrepreneurial purpose, except now in more outwardly violent ways.
Indigenous inhabitants had fewer choices. If they lacked weapons, they had to seek protection as subordinates to local armed groups, or take their chances in poorly armed home guard militias. These rigidified lines of conflict fit the expectations of scholars that political entrepreneurs will exploit these security dilemmas to get control of local resources. This is especially true among new arrivals who lacked mechanisms to settle disputes among themselves, since all were `foreigners' who could call upon distant kinsmen to tip the balance of power. The relative violence in southern regions illustrates the proposition above that outsider elites who had benefited from privileged access to the political networks of the crumbling state fit best into the expectations that state collapse and violent exploitation of resources will lead to long-term conflict, rigidified ethnic defensive groups, and will fail to build large-scale political communities. Economic globalization in this setting adds resources to sustain the battles of political entrepreneurs, and thus creates formidable obstacles to organizing stable political authority.
Source: Somaliland Times , ISSUE 60, March 15, 2003
HORMOOD expected to announce today its merger with KULMIYE
President Rayale's tour of the districts of Lughaya, Zaila and Borama was officially described as the final leg of a planned country wide fact-finding mission that the President began last year with visits to the regions of Sool [Las-Anod], Sanag [Erigavo], Togdheer [Buroa] and Sahil [Berbera].
Mr. Rayale's tour of the regions last year, actually began a week or so before the local elections that were held on Dec 15, 2002. His sudden departure from the capital on the early hours of Wednesday, to the coastal area north and west of Hargeisa, has however been described by many people as nothing short of an election campaign.
In fact, the President needed to raise voter support for his election among the area inhabitants who have been divided by a dispute over the regional jurisdiction under which their territories should be administered. Both Hargeisa and Borama regional authorities claim territorial jurisdiction over large chunks of coastal land. The center of the dispute are the two coastal towns of Lughaya and Eil-Sheikh, which historically came under the jurisdiction of Hargeisa. However, under a regional administrative sub-division introduced by the former Siyad Barre regime in the early eighties, the two areas had been re-designated as being part of a new region named "Baki" which was then re-named as Awdal.
Local elections in the disputed localities belonging to Eil Sheikh and Lughaya had to be postponed for one day to allow the central government to reinforce its security personnel there.
President Rayale visited Lughaya on Wednesday before proceeding to the port town of Zaila at the Somaliland and Djiboutian border on the same day. He was expected to discuss the dispute over territorial jurisdiction with the elders of the Sa'ad Mussa, Gadabursi and Isa clans who inhabit the area. Though a breakthrough on this issue was unlikely to materialize as a result of this visit, failure to make some kind of a progress may cost the president the loss of the area's Isa and Isaq votes.
Mr. Rayale was also expected to hear bitter grievances from the local communities over the lack of developmental assistance. Water is considered as the main priority. Despite the many clinics and schools built in other parts of Somaliland, most of the area's localities there received none of them. The area lies behind the mountainous Golis range and has been left isolated from the rest of the country due to lack of accessibility by motor transport roads.
President Rayale arrived in Borama by road from Zaila on Thursday. He was expected in Gabiley today.
Meanwhile, UCID party's presidential candidate, Faysal Ali Warabe has accused President Rayale's government of using state resources for election campaigning. Speaking at a workshop organized by the NEC on Tuesday, Mr. Faysal said the upcoming presidential election couldn't be expected to be fair unless the government desisted from abusing public resources.
Abdul-Aziz Samale of KULMIYE opposition party had also taken issue with President Rayale's reshuffling of his cabinet to accommodate 3 new appointees from ASAD, a faction of which joined the government controlled UDUB party recently. "Offering governmental posts in exchange for allegiance to UDUB is an undemocratic practice and undermines the multi-party political system," Mr. Abdul-Aziz said.
Moreover, the chairman of the NEC, Ahmed Haji Adami criticized the government for failing to arrange an early release of budgetary funds allocated for the Commission. He also expressed concern over what he termed as lack of a government effort to evict Puntland militiamen from parts of Eastern Sanag region. He said, "election in some parts of Eastern Sanag could be jeopardized if the presence of foreign militia men was not dealt with properly."
Attendants of the NEC workshop, held on Tuesday and Wednesday for the 3 contesting political parties and civil society groups, called on the Commission to hold more public debates on the issue of preparedness for next presidential elections.
Somaliland's Minister of Interior stated on Wednesday that the policy of his government was to hold the upcoming election all over Somaliland territories, including the Sool region.
The NEC Chairman disclosed that about 900 polling stations would be established in the country for the next presidential election.
The political organization HORMOOD is expected to announce today its merger with the political party KULMIYE. The two organizations will hold a joint press conference in Ming Sing hotel to announce the merger.
Source: Somaliland Times , ISSUE 60, March 15, 2003
UCID's Acting Secretary General Resigns
Source: Somaliland Times , ISSUE 60, March 15, 2003
ASAD Group Rewarded with 3 Cabinet Posts
Source: Somaliland Times , ISSUE 60, March 15, 2003
UN Press Release
Kadar is one of the lucky ones. His mother brought him to the UNICEF-supported therapeutic feeding center in Hartasheik where he was treated for phase one malnutrition, the most serious stage. Since the camp's inception in May 2001, 442 children have been admitted and treated for varying degrees of severe malnutrition. Another 347 beneficiaries have received UNICEF-supported supplementary feeding as of 31 January, including 83 children under five, 68 pregnant women, 89 lactating women and 107 elderly.
Miriam Abelb, 27, came to the IDP camp at Hartasheik two years ago during the last drought with her husband, 4-year-old Fatimo and 2-year-old Abdi and has been struggling to feed her family ever since. "All the goats and sheep died. "My husband is looking to dig in the fields, wash the clothes. One day he gets a job. The next there is no work," Miriam said. "When the baby became weak, I ran to here. He was very severely malnourished."
Like other children who come to the UNICEF-supported center, Abdi received emergency therapeutic feeding every three hours over three to four days while he was in phase one. He was in transition for two days, but is now considered in phase two and out of danger. "I was afraid he would die, but now he's okay. I'm very glad for my child," Miriam said. "Now I have the experience to make sure it doesn't happen again."
During the current drought crisis, UNICEF estimates that there are currently 57,200 severely malnourished children, or two per cent of the 2.86 million children under five in drought affected areas, who require 675 metric tones (MT) of F-100 therapeutic food. One MT of F-100 rehabilitates around 85 children. More than 500 MT of therapeutic food is still needed in the next few months for the current crisis, much more if relapse rates are higher. "Many of these children are suffering from dehydration and low glucose levels. They are at a critical stage and if it continues, in no time they could die from heart failure," said James King'ori, a Kenyan nutrition consultant working for UNICEF based in Jigjiga. When therapeutic feeding begins "you can see the changes within the first hour - that is so exciting."
"Many times the children are suckling the mothers, and there's no breast milk. " The mothers are fed enough and within the first 24 hours you can see a response in the amount of breast milk," King'ori continued. "By increasing milk production and the child is rehydrated, the mother and child recover simultaneously."
Even with UNICEF's interventions, the health situation of Hartasheik's 1042 IDP households is poor. The number of cases of malnutrition remains high, and there is a serious deterioration in the population's nutritional status and increased episodes of disease. Many of the IDPs in Hartasheik are victims of the last drought in 1999-2000 when they left their places of origin in search of pastureland and water for their livestock. When their animals died, these pastoralists lost their main food and income source and had still not recovered when drought hit again last year. "These people are pastoralists who have lost all of their livestock in the 2000 drought. These people have nothing," said UNICEF national nutrition officer Anwar Ali. "If things don't change, it will get worse than 2000."
Fatimo Mohamud, 25, arrived on the day of our visit to the therapeutic feeding center with her one-year-old son, Dekabidi. His expression is listless and his eyes are unfocused. Mohamed Ibrahim, the camp supervisor for Mother and Child Development Organization (MCDO), a national NGO working in the Somali Region working with UNICEF, said a healthy boy Dekabidi's age should weigh about 8.5 kilos. He weighs a paltry 6.3 kilos. "We will try for three to four days on (therapeutic feeding) to get him out of phase one," Mohamed said. "We hope to help and cure him."
For Somali and other drought-affected regions around the country, UNICEF is sponsoring five-day training workshops for 150 health professionals to teach updated guidelines on the management of severe wasting and edematous malnutrition. "They'll be given basic supplies and training to go all over the region," said King'ori. So far, 27 health care professionals have been trained in Somali Region. "For the cases they can not manage on their own, they can refer back to the center."
Participants learn how to assess the effectiveness of a Therapeutic Feeding Programme as well as the specialized food needs to support them. They will also have the training for infant feeding emergencies for malnourished babies. UNICEF has recruited therapeutic feeding experts Irish Professor Michael Golden and French nutritionist Dr. Yvonne Grellety to conduct the training workshops with assistance from the Health and Nutrition Section from the Ethiopia Country Office.
UNICEF has a variety of other Health and Nutrition programmes underway in the Somali Region to assist those suffering during the current crisis. Twenty emergency medical kits, each supporting 10,000 persons for a period of three months, were sent to the region in January 2003. An additional 20 emergency medical kits were donated by UNICEF to the Regional Health Bureau (RHB) in July 2002 to contain disease outbreaks when the crisis started.
UNICEF has also pre-positioned therapeutic foods in the RHB's warehouse for use in therapeutic and supplementary feeding centers in Hartisheik and Fafan and for the nutrition training center in Jijiga. In order to control the persisting outbreaks of diarrhea and malaria in the region, UNICEF has agreed to support the RHB with additional operational costs for emergency health interventions in Shinile, Liban, Warder and Degahbour zones. "We have received a lot of assistance for the most vulnerable - women, children, elders," said Muktar Mohammed Sayid, NGO co-ordinator with the Food Security Bureau and DPPB based in Jijiga. "Therapeutic food, milk, water - the partnership with us and UNICEF is more like family. UNICEF has done a lot to build capacity and fill the gaps."
In Hartasheik, malnutrition is not the only problem that the IDPs face. An increase of waterborne disease cases has been reported because of contaminated water and poor sanitation. Clean water from boreholes is provided to the Hartisheik IDPs with funding from UNICEF. To improve the sanitation of the camp, pit latrines and garbage pits have been introduced. Both measures have significantly reduced the incidence of water-borne disease. "There was a gap with water," said King'ori. "UNICEF has come in and water is being provided to the IDP camp."
Letter to Mudane Cabdi Xasan Buuni
We are in the midst of a truly dynamic political metamorphosis in our fledgling country. We are finding our feet in what has previously been uncharted territory. The formation of political parties, the establishment of regional representative bodies, the implementation of a written constitution. In short, the process of political democratization, which under the right experienced leadership will see the political map of the Horn of Africa redrawn.
You Sir were a member of arguably, the youngest, most dynamic, most qualified party to guide us through this epoch of change, The KULMIYE Party. A party that as an entity in of itself has come to house the best thinkers our country has to offer. Sir, every individual has been given freedom of will and choice to do as they wish. At the offset you aligned yourself with the party that one assumes you felt best represented your wishes and aspirations for a better Somaliland and a better country for your people to live in. You put yourself forward as a candidate, along with numerous others, as the Party's Vice-Presidential running mate to contest the upcoming elections.
Sir, after what has been nationally hailed and observed as a truly democratic process of voting, the party chose another candidate. It can only have one. Everyone is entitled to freedom of action but what you have done does not best serve your country or yourself. To cross benches for ideological reasons is one thing, but to quit a party you have worked for under a fit of pique in loosing a position sought is something else. Were you looking/working for the best for your country or the best Quursi for you? A fundamental question.
Sir, to run around now, bending the ear of any journalist who will listen and harping on about the mythical no-existent divisions you allege that have occurred within the party does not do justice to your honorable self. What is the point of the democratic process of unification under parties if every member who isn't given one of the finite positions available decides to run away and cry foul.
Are you, our politicians here for us your people, to collectively make a better country for today and for future generations of Somalilanders or to get the best individual position in the now and present.
Ahmed Ali "Drum"
His latest effort proves that the singer's touch and talent are very much intact. Whether he is singing or playing the "Oud," "Drum" singularly investigates the possibilities of musical space and pushes harmonic and melodic limits.
When "Drum" visited Somaliland in 1998 for the first time since independence, he began his homage by performing in front of a live audience at an open air theater called "Timacade." The audience responded by giving him ovations. The strong response was so gratifying that "Drum" declared in public that he will move back from London - where he resides now - to Somaliland as soon as possible. In fact, the public response reminded him of his youth in Hargeisa, as a singer/musician and actor. He collaborated with such luminaries as Barkhad Cas, Abdillahi Qarshe, Mohamed Ismail "Xudaydi," Mohamed Mogeh, Ahmed Mogeh, Faisel and the rest of the famous "Barkhad Cas Band" during those early days.
It was through playing and singing alongside such masters that "Drum" found his own voice and his own path.
In an interview with "Jamhuuriya ," a daily newspaper from Hargeisa, Somaliland, "Drum" emphasized how his music is deeply rooted in Somaliland musical traditions. Furthermore, he points out, "Since Somaliland music is just like any other art form, it's impossible to move ahead without properly appreciating what has been done so far by Somaliland music pioneers."
"Drum" points to predecessors who inspired him such as Abdillahi Qarshe, the foremost Somaliland singer/musician in the 1950's and early 1960's; Mohamed Saeed nicknamed "Gu' Roon Jire" the great composer/oud player and singer in the 1940's, `50s, and `60s; and last but not least Saxardiid Mohamed "Raaxeeye," poet, songwriter, playwright, and composer.
"Drum" considers "Raaxeeye" to be one of the most talented composers of all time. He says, "Saxardeed is to me one of the most gifted of all the composers, because he does not play any instrument or sing. But, yet, he composed some of the best Qaraami songs ever put to music.
School Days
Upon finishing school at the clerical Training Center (CTC) in Hargeisa, Somaliland, in the late 1950's, he was hired by the Somaliland postal authority as an accountant. He worked there until he got a scholarship to Cairo's prestigious "Academy of Music," along with his two close friends and co-singers - Ahmed Mohamed Goode "Shimbir" and Faisel Omer Mushteeg.
"Drum" came back to his hometown Hargeisa in the mid 1960's, where he became one of the city's cultural and musical stars. "Lii La Low," a popular song in the 1960's, became "Drum's" signature song. Incidentally, this song is considered by many Somaliland music critics as a masterpiece. He sang another famous song that praised black women's beauty, called "Weli wa Caaruroo."
"Xudaydi," who arranged the music and wrote the lyrics, shows his musicianship in this song. The music literally blows your mind. While longtime fans will relish "Xudaydi's" anarchic imagination and exploratory way with a melody line, they may also be surprised with "Drum's" voice and musical vision. "Drum's" voice is ever on a journey of discovery, with each performance taking new detours, as listeners keep their ears tuned to every turn.
Africa News, March 14, 2003 (Addis Tribune, Part IV)
Ethiopia; Somaliland Presidential Election Chronicles: Back to the Future?
Somaliland's transition towards multi-party politics and constitutional government is precious yet precarious. Indeed, Somaliland is at the most important time in its political history. The elections are tied to the future of the country itself. Will this transition to democracy succeed given the innumerable obstacles to achieving a democratic dispensation in Somaliland? Or, put another way, will the transition be hijacked and defined more exclusively in traditional norms or/and in exclusively in modern terms? And lastly, what responsibility does the international community have given their calls for democracy and the rule of law, given the continuing experiment in Somaliland.
It is clearly a challenge for Somaliland to put institutions of governance on a firm root let alone handling the competing needs of traditional institutions and modern institutions. After ten years of debate and conflict about representation, Somaliland initiated a process of constitution making that would act as a provisional document as far as beginning the process of democratization in Somaliland is concerned. Steeped in clan representation and generally mistrustful of ideas beyond those of clan representation, the people of Somaliland discussed and debated the ideas in the constitution for months before ratifying it. The ratification and its aftermath have shown that constitutions are important pathfinders in the transition to democracy or what I have called in other opinions about Somaliland our "democratic dispensation".
The smooth and predictable way in which the presidency moved from one political template to another is to be applauded and indeed cherished. Predictability and the rule of law are the hallmarks of constitutions; they banish other illegitimate political agents from usurping power and indeed constitutions act as well to fill the power vacuum that is often created when leaders are incapacitated.
Somaliland's commitment to constitutional government should not mean that Somaliland should immediately abandon the traditional institutions that built the peace in Somaliland and, indeed, continue to resolve any threats to the peace. Somaliland must continue to evolve its own hybrid of modern systems of government that in fact represent the culture and world-view of the people. The transition to democracy is not instant, nor is it immediate. It must be nourished and indeed built in an evolutionary fashion. Far from being conservative or hampering the journey and experience of democracy in Somaliland, I argue that the commitment to the constitution is the fundamental basis of politics in the country. However, Somaliland must continue to build the transition, setting institutional anchors along the way in the process of protecting democratic gains. The political and economic landscape in Somaliland is fragile; all transitions to democracy are delicate; and indeed, democracy has failed to take root more times that not precisely because the transition was not effective at all. Nor did they [transitions] contain any protective structures to guard against fragmentation and collapse.
An important traditional institution that has been the basis of creating the wherewithal of politics in the country has been the Guurti. The Guurti (Senate), to clarify my position, must be elected, effective, and competent in the long run. We are, however, not there yet; the Guurti as every Somalilander knows is either loved or loathed. We cannot deny its usefulness though in the current political context. Nor can we wish it away as a caricature from the times where the people of Somaliland did not have a constitution. Clearly there are many positions on how to proceed on this issue of the Guurti. One important suggestion is to wait and consider the views of the elected parliament whose legitimacy as the representatives of the people is clearly important.
However, we cannot leave to our politicians all the business of the country. Many groups, such as the intelligentsia, civil society groups and women groups have a role in the discussion about the Guurti, the people of Somaliland being the final arbiters on this issue. I am suggesting here in my arguments about protecting this transition to more formal institutions of rule a waiting period or a time period that would ensure the Guurti remains a viable institution pending a national debate or a constitutional debate on the way forward. We are already in the throes of a national election, it would be irresponsible of the country to burden itself further with more elections given our lack of resources. It should be remembered that elections have not happened in this country for nearly fourty years. This experience will be the epicenter of our democratic experience. The Guurti should be left in place as an insurance procedure during and after these elections.
Given nearness with which the country has traveled away from the Shiir-Belled system, remnants of this peace and confidence building institution - the Guurti - should serve its purpose of consolidating the confidence and peace of areas in Somaliland where the writ of the government is weak, such as Las Annood in the province of Sool. One clearly important part of the Guurti must be those Sultans and Gaarads of Somaliland who have been burdened with producing the peace in Somaliland. But this is beyond the subject of this essay. Suffice it to say, traditional systems of rule must be those of confidence building and peace building processes. They are not, in a word, institutions with a political substance that can serve the long-term objectives, be they political, social or economic of the state of Somaliland and its citizens. However, they represent social anchors in this transition to our democratic dispensation.
The move towards more modern institutions of rule is characterized fundamentally by electorate politics or elections. Transitions to democracy, I have argued, are fraught with dangers that lurk in seemingly obscure and shadowy places. Nothing does more damage to the transition to democracy in contemporary African politics than the instinct of incumbent governments in an electoral period to corrupt the ballot-box process. This single issue often leads to the corruption of the entire political process and indeed subverts any democratic gains or any vision of a democratic dispensation.
Opposition parties in Somaliland have repeatedly called upon the government to ensure that there is transparency and openness in this period of elections. This call is clearly clarion call against any interference in the election process. The government in times of elections is traditionally responsible for creating the basis of a free and open election through an independent electoral commission. Somaliland has won high marks in the recent municipal elections with the United States Government, through the state department calling the municipal election "generally fair". It is customary for the government in times of elections to build confidence measures so that the opposition can legitimize the election results. Whether the incumbent government comes back to power or the opposition elected, is irrelevant if the process was illegitimate. Elites in Somaliland - and there are elites - must understand that the process at this period of Somaliland's development is critical to the well being of the entire country. The transition to democracy must be anchored to the social and political landscape for successes to be realized.
The international community and non-governmental organizations have a role to play in these events and that is human and material support. The international community cannot keep on calling for democracy and the rule of law and indeed abandon those countries that have set their national aspirations towards these human goals to their own devices. This would be reckless and negligent. Democracies tend to be friends; they tend to have the same ideas of human secularism; and they tend to believe in open societies and plural politics. In democracies, famine is rare, civil war un-heard of and indeed democracy is in the end the bulwark of authoritarianism. Young democracies need help. Without help authoritarian tendencies gain courage and begin the process of un-raveling the gains of democracy. Somaliland has just begun the path to finding its own particular system as an independent, confident and democratic country. It is, in a word, going back to the future!
Somaliland is going back to its future because it once had this chance, this transition to being a country. No record of that mistake is needed here, for it is common knowledge that history played a cruel joke on the people of Somaliland. Today there is another chance for this country to fulfill its national ambition, and that ambition is to once and for all find a particular vision that is democratic. No country can justify any nationalism if that nationalism is not democratic, not inclusive and does propagate the idea of social and economic justice as a basis of nationalism. Given the failure of the state and market in the last four blighted decades in Africa, let us hope and pray that the experiment of my people in Somaliland lives. It must live!
BBC World Service, 12 March, 2003, 15:36 GMT
Somaliland begins campaign
Somaliland declared independence in 1991, as the rest of Somalia descended into anarchy.
Mr Egal was elected president two years later, but the territory has never won international recognition.
Concerns
One of the candidates, Feisal Ali Warabe, expressed doubt that the election would be free and fair. Election Commission chairman Abdirahman Hagi Ali Adami has also criticised the authorities for not handing over all the promised funds to supervise the elections. He also expressed concern about a hostile atmosphere in eastern areas. On Monday, two soldiers died and six others were wounded when a armed car overtured near the town of Lughaye. The vehicle was carrying the president's bodyguards.
BBC Monitoring Reports, March 12, 2003/Somaliland net, 12 Mar 03
Ahmed Siilaanyo meets a British deligation
The chairman of the kulmiye party who is also presidental candidate of the party, Siilanyo,discussed several points including the election of the president which is currently being coducted and the kulmiye party's viewpoint. He also discussed the need of Somaliland for international aid and role of Britain in this. The chairman and the delegation also discussed the elections conucted in the country and difficulties that were noted. The chairman mentioned hat the British government decided to reevaluate Somaliland and decide to aid in the best manner. The chairman who was accompanied by members of the Kulmiye party stated his stand of the talks in Nairobi and and that Somaliland is not a part of it.
DAILY MAIL (London) March 11, 2003, Pg. 51
BILLY PULLS HEARTSTRINGS
Billy Connolly established a bond of humanity between the people of Somaliland and viewers here - all fabulously rich by comparison. Connolly pulled no punches as he took us to a hospital in the capital, Hargeysa: 'This isn't one of your feel-good, nicey-nicey films. If you want one of them, change the channel - there's probably some talentless jerk trying to be a pop star on the other side. 'Life is hard here, ridiculously hard,' continued the Big Yin, perhaps recalling his own upbringing in Glasgow which, though tough, was never like this. 'Get your guts together, this is not pretty. I'd like to show you how common humanity, common decency, should make us all want to help.' Mankind cannot bear too much reality TV and this was far more real than Pop Idol. It was asking a lot of an audience to watch for an hour without compassion fatigue, yet Connolly knew how to ask for our money for Comic Relief.
Shock tactics came first, taking us straight to a near-derelict operating theatre with bloody scalpels, a man crying out in pain and a dirty plastic bucket to catch surgical waste. You could be forgiven for thinking it was a scene from Dickens. It had taken days to get an eightyearold boy with a badly broken arm to the hospital. Without rapid treatment, it would require amputation. The boy needed sterile dressings that his family would have to buy, but they had no money. When another patient gave them some spares, the boy's father's gratitude knew no bounds.
Not that Somaliland is a complete disaster area, despite a civil war that has left thousands in resettlement camps. Comic Relief funds clean water and animal husbandry projects to keep breadline village economies from collapse.
Jibril, the smiling vet in charge of one, had bright orange hair, much admired by Connolly. Jibril dyed it after it turned white overnight - a result of being pursued by soldiers and seeing his friends massacred. 'My hair turned grey over ten years,' said Connolly. 'I didn't get a fright, I just got old - that's frightening enough.' The Big Yin then took us to see a baby being born, attended by a birth assistant trained with GBP 50 of Comic Relief cash: 'It's like a scene from the Nativity, but it's 2,000 years on and still women are bringing children into the world on a dirt floor in a cramped hut.' The baby was born healthy and Connolly was radiant with joy as he cradled it with the same wonder he once experienced at the birth of his own five children in clean, wellequipped hospitals.
From joy to sorrow; Hodan, a beautiful girl of 18, had two broken legs caused by falling down a deep hole in the dark. She lived only three hours' drive from Hargeysa, but her father Mohamed could not get her a lift for three days. Infection had set in and she needed antibiotics and an operation to rejoin the bones - total cost, GBP 20.
Her penniless father had to take her home untreated. With hindsight, any self-respecting fly on the wall should have switched off the cameras and reached into his back pocket for 20 quid - bad television, perhaps, but good humanity.
Tragedies such as this happen in Somaliland every day with no benefactor at hand. Television has a duty to tell it like it is, not how we'd like it to be. Two days later, Hodan died.
It wasn't Connolly's fault, yet he had to face her family. Scots reserve made his condolences sound stilted: 'Can I say, on behalf of all my friends, how deeply, deeply sorry we were to hear about your daughter's death.' A bitter father might have replied: 'We would rather have had your GBP 20 than your condolences.' But Mohamed was resigned: 'It's God's will that she died. I'm a very poor man. I had to bring her home. I had no choice.' As Connolly said: 'Out here, you see hearts breaking every day.' But that doesn't make each individual tragedy any less real. As flies on the wall, we were witnesses - and if the reality upsets us, perhaps we're the ones who should be reaching for our wallets.
SCOTLAND'S stealth actresses were out in force last night in the very English Inspector Lynley Mysteries, without the Home Counties suspecting a thing.
In fact, Johnstone's own Phyllis Logan is so good at middleclass matrons with cut-glass accents and formidable hauteur that she has virtually cornered this guest slot in English murder mysteries.
Neve McIntosh from Paisley played her drug-addicted prostitute daughter with heartrending vulnerability, although giving her motor neurone disease to cope with as well seemed a bit over the top.
The lasting delight of Lynley is Sharon Small, born in Drumchapel but playing a wee Cockney sparrow to perfection as DS Havers (noun, Scots, meaning 'nonsense').
And she has a lot of nonsense to put up with as partner to the suave, upper-crust Lynley, who has the hots for her but is in denial, unable to call her anything more intimate than detective sergeant.
Small's delicate features register every nuance of emotion. Beside Nathaniel Parker's Lynley she seems fragile enough to blow away, yet Havers is tough and walks with a Chris Cagney swagger - Sharon Gless meets Sharon Small.
Only once last night did she give away her Scottish origins. While investigating the murder of an England cricketer, she mused innocently: 'Cricket - it's all kind of cucumber sandwiches, isn't it, not sudden deaths' Only a girl from Drumchapel would be unfamiliar with the phrase 'England batting collapse'.
Somaliland Times , Issue 59 March 8, 2003
The Horn of Africa: How Does Somaliland Fit?
Presented at a Discussion Seminar Introducing Somaliland in Umea, Sweden On March 8, 2003 Sponsored by Forum Syd
Thank you for inviting me to come so far to speak to you about the position of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa. I also bring greetings from your colleagues in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. I speak today as a private American citizen who has been interested in the Horn of Africa since the early 1960s. Although I spent 37 years with the U.S. Department of State, my views are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the American government. Nor do I speak for any foreign government. My goal is to analyze dispassionately, factually and constructively controversial issues confronting the Horn of Africa.
Arbitrary Borders
Conflict in the Horn of Africa goes back centuries. Although there have been periods of peace, conflict has been more the norm than the exception. European colonialism further complicated the situation. The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 and numerous colonial treaties created boundaries in Africa that are especially arbitrary. In fact, the Horn of Africa was impacted more negatively than many other parts of the continent by borders agreed upon in foreign capitals. Great Britain, France, Italy, Ethiopia and even Egypt had a hand in partitioning the lands inhabited by the Somalis. Great Britain established a Somaliland Protectorate in 1887 and by 1897 the partition of Somaliland was largely complete.
Independence and Unification
Those of you attending this seminar recall that the United Kingdom granted independence to the people of Somaliland on 26 June 1960. Somaliland was an independent country for five days. Some 35 states recognized independent Somaliland. The U.S. Secretary of State, Christian Herter, sent a congratulatory message. The United Kingdom signed several bilateral agreements with Somaliland in Hargeisa on 26 June 1960. At about the same time, Italy granted independence to former Italian Somalia on 1 July 1960.
The concept of unity between British Somaliland and Italian Somalia had been discussed extensively during the year leading up to independence on the basis that Somalis are the same people, speak the same language and have a common religion. For the sake of Somali unity, the new Somali governments in both Hargeisa and Mogadishu agreed to merge into one nation. The legislatures of both entities met in joint session in Mogadishu and agreed formally to join together as the Republic of Somalia effective 1 July 1960. Somaliland became known as the Northern Regions and former Italian Somalia as the Southern Regions. There was never a referendum on the act of union.
The idea was to hold a national referendum to ratify the new Republic's constitution within a year. This referendum took place on 20 June 1961 and, in the case of Somaliland, served as a vote of confidence or lack thereof for unification with former Italian Somalia. The leading political party in the Northern Regions boycotted the referendum. Just over 100,000 persons out of an estimated total population of 650,000 in the Northern Regions participated in the referendum, suggesting that at least half of the electorate boycotted the vote. Of those who did vote, about 60 percent opposed the constitution. It is apparent that as early as 1961 a majority of Somalilanders were troubled by the decision to join the Somali Republic. As if to underscore this unhappiness, there was an attempted military coup in Somaliland late in 1961. Although it failed, one of its goals was to secede from the Somali Republic and establish an independent government.
Africa and Boundaries
In view of the arbitrariness of boundaries throughout the continent, it is not surprising that Somalia received virtually no support among African countries for a Greater Somalia. At the 1963 summit meeting that established the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the President of Somalia argued that the case of Somalia was unique in Africa because all of Somalia's boundaries cut across grazing land that divided Somalis. The Ethiopian Prime Minister responded that "it is in the interest of all Africans now to respect the frontiers drawn on the maps, whether they are good or bad, by the former colonizers." Interestingly, the Charter of the OAU contains no explicit reference to borders although it does underscore respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states.
The second OAU summit conference in Cairo in 1964 passed a resolution that contained the following language in the preamble: "the borders of African States, on the date of their independence, constitute a tangible reality." Even more significant for Somaliland, Article 4 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union signed on 12 June 2000 in Lome, Togo, states that the African Union shall function in accordance with the following principle: "respect of borders existing on achievement of independence."
On the basis of its brief independence from 26 June until 1 July 1960, Somaliland would seem to meet the definition contained in the resolution passed in Cairo in 1964 and the more recent Constitutive Act of the African Union. Yet the African Union and its member states have not so far been willing to accept independent status for Somaliland. At a meeting in Washington late last year the Interim Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, Amara Essy, implied that Somaliland was not independent when the United Kingdom relinquished power to Somalilanders on 26 June 1960. One can only assume that he was unaware of the five days of independence or chose to conclude that this period did not meet his definition of independence. In any event, the African Union and its members most probably are reluctant to recognize the independence of Somaliland for fear that it would increase pressure by other groups in Africa to support changes in borders inherited at independence. The fact that Somaliland does not fit in the same category as other cases on the continent has not yet persuaded the African Union and its member states to give serious consideration to the arguments made by the government in Hargeisa. In fact, the African Union was quick to recognize the Transitional National Government in Mogadishu. Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that Somaliland officials have a low opinion of the African Union.
Live and Let Live
During the early years of the Somali Republic, the Northern Regions worked out a modus vivendi with Mogadishu. A Somalilander, Mohammed Ibrahim Egal, even became Prime Minister of the unified country in 1967. He did not last long in the position. In 1969, a bodyguard assassinated the President of the Somali Republic, and several days later a group of army officers seized power and installed Major General Mohammed Siad Barre in power. The new military government arrested Egal, who remained in jail until 1982 except for a six-month period in 1975 when he was assigned as Ambassador to India.
Barre's rule rekindled discontent in the Northern Regions and by 1981 Somalilanders formed the Somali National Movement, which had the goal of toppling the Barre government. By 1988 an all-out civil war developed and Somaliland experienced considerable devastation at the hands of government-sponsored forces. The brutal repression resulted in more than 20,000 killed and left a deep bitterness among Somalilanders. The war ended in January 1991 with the fall of the Barre government.
The Failure of Pan-Somali Unity
From its inception, the Somali Republic dedicated itself to the unity of all Somalis in the Horn of Africa. This meant that the government in Mogadishu tried in every way possible to incorporate into the Somali Republic those Somalis living in neighboring Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. The result was constant tension along all three borders, sporadic fighting and a major war with Ethiopia in 1977-78 when the Siad Barre government captured most of Ethiopia's Ogaden Region. It was only with the assistance of Soviet military advisers and some 15,000 Cuban troops that the Mengistu Haile Mariam regime in Ethiopia was able to turn back the Somali forces. Although Somalia's relations with Kenya and Djibouti did not deteriorate to this extent, there was always deep concern in both countries about Mogadishu's intentions and policies.
Somalilanders were never particularly enthusiastic about the Pan-Somali goal of uniting all Somalis in the Horn of Africa under one government in Mogadishu. This was a concept that had more resonance in former Italian Somalia. The concept of Pan-Somalism, also known as Greater Somalia, disappeared as a significant issue with the overthrow of the Siad Barre government in 1991. In fact, factional clan conflict within former Italian Somalia essentially replaced Pan-Somalism. Somalia's three neighbors are probably not convinced, however, that the goal of a Greater Somalia has gone forever. Should there be any effort by Somalis to revive this policy, it will certainly be met with hostility by Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
Somaliland's Second Independence
The Central Committee of the Somali National Movement (SNM) assembled in Burao in May 1991 and declared unilaterally that Somaliland would henceforth become the independent Republic of Somaliland. The SNM named Abdirahman Ahmed Ali "Tur" as interim president for two years. Near the end of his term, the 150-member Council of Elders began meeting in Borama to determine the political future of Somaliland. They agreed to establish an executive president and a bicameral legislature. The Council then elected Mohammed Ibrahim Egal as President of the Republic of Somaliland in 1993. They reelected Egal in 1997. The Conference of Somaliland Communities, formed by various Somaliland leaders, adopted a constitution at Hargeisa in 1997. It was to remain in effect for three years and would come into full force only after a referendum, which took place in May 2001.
In the meantime, Somaliland opted not to participate in the process aimed at unifying Somali factions that was initiated by the government of Djibouti in 2000 in the Djiboutian town of Arta. The Arta Conference resulted in creation of the Transitional National Government (TNG) that took up residence in North Mogadishu and claimed to represent all of Somalia, including Somaliland. The TNG occupied Somalia's seats at the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union), and the Arab League. Somaliland continues to reject both the Arta process and the government it created, arguing that the independence of Somaliland is nonnegotiable. For the same reason it is boycotting the Somali peace process that began last year in Kenya.
Referendum on Somaliland Constitution
Somaliland conducted a referendum on 31 May 2001, which endorsed a new constitution and reaffirmed its status as an independent state. The referendum offers some useful insights on the thinking of Somalilanders on the issue of independence. The Initiative and Referendum Institute, an international nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. sent a 10-member team to observe the referendum process from 28 May until 7 June 2001. Eight of the delegates were from the United States, one from the United Kingdom, and one from Switzerland. The Institute acknowledged that its ability to observe the referendum was imperfect. On the day of the referendum, it was only able to visit 57 of the 600 polling stations in five of Somaliland's six regions. The Institute chose, for security reasons, not to send any observers to Sool Region and had only one observer in Sanaag Region. The Institute concluded, however, that overall the referendum was conducted "openly, fairly, honestly, and largely in accordance with internationally recognized election procedures." Irregularities and procedural deviations were de minimus, and occurrences of fraud were insignificant and very rare. The referendum was peaceful and without violence.
Ninety-seven percent of the voters approved the constitution. The Institute believes that the referendum was primarily a vote to show support for independence rather than an endorsement of the numerous provisions of the constitution. It concluded that approximately two-thirds of eligible voters participated. The Institute suggested that some of those who chose not to vote were probably exercising their opposition to the referendum. In Las Anod District of Sool Region, for example, where there was the greatest opposition to the referendum, voter turnout was only 31 percent, well below the national average. The opposition was not unified around one issue. Some opposed Somaliland's independence while others supported independence but were opposed to the administration of President Egal. But even assuming that all eligible voters that did not vote were opposed to the constitution, independence, and/or the Egal administration, 97 percent of two-thirds of the voters still supported the constitution and independence.
Elections
Political parties only returned to Somaliland following the passage of enabling legislation in 2000. Late in 2001 Somaliland postponed for one year the previously scheduled municipal elections and the 2002 presidential and legislative elections to allow more time for preparation. President Egal died of natural causes in May 2002. In accordance with the Somaliland constitution, his Vice President, Dahir Rayale Kahin, who was also elected by traditional leaders, succeeded him.
Six political parties took part in the municipal elections held on 15 December 2002. The process was peaceful although there was no voting in the disputed Las Anod District. The ruling UDUB party had the highest total at 198,000 votes but the combined total of the five opposition parties was more than 260,000. The outcome of the balloting suggests that Somalilanders were able to express their views freely although two opposition parties said they were not satisfied with the results, citing voting irregularities. It should be noted that these were the first multiparty elections in Somaliland since 1969 and the first occasion that Somaliland women were able to vote. They also took place with minimal outside assistance.
Presidential elections scheduled for January 2003 have been postponed until April 14. The electoral commission explained that it needed more time to deliver electoral materials to the polling stations, train poll officials and resolve budget issues. The three political parties that received the highest vote totals in the municipal elections will contest the presidential election. This includes President Rayale's UDUB party together with KULIMIYE led by Ahmed Mohamoud Silanyo and UCID founded by Faysal Ali Warabe. Parliamentary elections will probably take place in May. In view of Somaliland's inexperience with the holding of democratic elections, most Somalilanders and outsiders seem to be understanding of these postponements.
Reaching a Solution with Puntland
One issue that has a direct bearing on Somaliland's ability to attract international recognition is neighboring Puntland's claim to most of Sool and Sanaag Regions, a claim that Somaliland rejects. In 1998, the Harti leaders of northern Somalia and eastern Somaliland declared Puntland an autonomous republic within a federal Somalia. Unlike the leaders in Somaliland, they decided not to opt for independence and opposed the independence of Somaliland. Puntland's boundaries correspond roughly to those areas where the Harti, a subgroup of the larger Darod clan, reside. The Majerteen, a subset of the Harti, predominate in that part of Puntland known as northern Somalia, which borders Somaliland. Two additional Harti subsets, the Warsangeli and the Dulbahante, reside inside that part of Somaliland claimed by Puntland. The Warsangeli predominate in the eastern part of Sanaag Region while the Dulbahante predominate in Sool Region. Two Harti leaders that come from different subgroups-Abdullahi Yusuf and Jama Ali Jama-have been competing for power in Puntland. Abdullahi Yusuf achieved a military victory last year over Jama Ali Jama and established a new regional government. Clan reconciliation has not yet occurred, however, in Puntland.
Sool and Sanaag were part of British Somaliland and the Republic of Somaliland when it became independent in 1960. Puntland's claim to most of the two regions is based on clan ties. This complicates the issue for Somaliland in spite of the fact that there are differences of opinion among the Harti themselves. The fact that voters in Sanaag and, especially, Sool were decidedly less supportive of Somaliland's 2001 referendum and that Las Anod District did not participate in the 2002 municipal elections is evidence of opposition to Hargeisa. This is a vexing issue for Somaliland that cries out for a political solution that would enhance Somaliland's case for international recognition. It may require some kind of innovative proposal such as special status for those parts of Sool and Sanaag that oppose rule from Hargeisa. Ideally, such a resolution would be acceptable to both the residents of the two regions and the Puntland leadership. Failure to resolve peacefully Puntland's conflicting claims over parts of Sool and Sanaag will complicate international acceptance of Somaliland's independence.
Some Political Issues
Although not perfect, Somaliland has done amazingly well in managing the electoral process. Continued progress towards democratization, including free and fair elections, will help to convince the international community of Somaliland's bona fides as an independent state. One area that requires constant attention is the suppression of corruption. A problem endemic around the world, Somaliland has its share of this affliction. When Somaliland declared independence in 1991 for a second time, it had a militia of some 40,000 men that it began to reduce to less than 10,000. An estimated 50 to 70 percent of the Somaliland budget goes to the military, primarily to pay salaries. Some payments go to soldiers who do not exist or are no longer in uniform. Although corruption is pervasive in Somaliland, the amounts involved appear to be modest and its overall record may well be better than is the case in most developing countries.
As Somaliland continues to build democratic institutions, one of the critical areas that requires attention is a free press. There are few institutions that are more important at the early stages of developing democracy than a vigorous and open press. One need only look as far as Kenya to see the positive role that the private press can play in this process. There have been discussions in Somaliland's legislature of a draft press law. So far, they have not resulted in new legislation. The passage of any oppressive law aimed at controlling the press would be a serious setback for democracy in Somaliland. It is equally essential that the press, whether it supports or opposes the government, act professionally and responsibly.
HIV/AIDS
Although Somaliland declared HIV an epidemic in 1998, it is not paying sufficient attention to the problem. UNICEF conducted a useful HIV/AIDS behavioral survey in 1999, but there is still no UNAIDS presence in either Somalia or Somaliland. Somaliland's National HIV/AIDS Coordination Body held its first meeting in 2002. The civil war destroyed the health service delivery system, which is only slowly reviving with assistance from international nongovernmental organizations, agencies of the United Nations and private clinics. There is a severe shortage of skilled health workers, and except for efforts to raise awareness, little is being done. Testing is almost nonexistent. Blood donors found to be HIV positive are not informed of their status because there is no counseling service. The stigma of HIV/AIDS is huge. Neighboring Djibouti has an adult prevalence rate of at least 12 percent and neighboring Ethiopia a rate of somewhere between 7 and 18 percent, although the rate is lower in the Ogaden, the rural Somali Region that borders Somaliland.
It is generally believed that the HIV prevalence rate in Somaliland is relatively low. The 1999 UNICEF study, drawing on anecdotal information, concluded that the prevalence rate for the general population is about one percent. At the same time, the study noted that young people are sexually very active, and condom use generally is very low. Knowledge about the way that HIV/AIDS is transmitted is also low. Those who follow the subject suggest that the prevalence rate today is about four percent. If Somaliland, aided by international organizations, bilateral donors and nongovernmental organizations were to wage a major campaign now against HIV/AIDS, it might actually be possible to prevent the catastrophic situations that confront its neighbors. This is an area where Somaliland should seize the initiative and request international assistance and a UNAIDS presence. There has been some positive movement in recent months. Several Somali nongovernmental organizations are ready to help as soon as they can identify funding. A delegation led by Somaliland's minister of health participated in early February in a conference on combating HIV/AIDS at Arusha, Tanzania. But this is only a beginning; much remains to be done.
The Menace of Khat
The habitual use of khat is not, of course, confined to Somaliland. It is widely used in Somalia, Djibouti, Yemen and increasingly in Ethiopia. When Somalilanders hear friends from the West complain about the evils of khat, they must be thinking that Westerners have their own problems with the abuse of alcohol and use of hard drugs. This is a legitimate response, but it does not lessen the damage being done to Somali society by the growing use of khat. As serious as alcohol abuse and use of hard drugs is in the West, the percentages of abuse and use do not reach those of khat usage in Somaliland. When you ask Somalilanders what percent of the population regularly used khat at the time of independence in 1960, the responses tend to vary between one and five percent. A Somalilander who recently researched this issue estimated that five percent of women and 75 percent of men now use it on an almost daily basis.
The green leaves of khat, which are chewed during lengthy sessions, contain cathinone, an active brain stimulant that acts much like amphetamine. Khat ingestion results in decreased appetite, euphoria and hyper alertness. Chronic use of khat often produces sleeplessness, nervousness, impotence, constipation and nightmares. The average daily cost of a khat session is $5, a huge amount for most Somalilanders. It is having a severely negative impact on family life as the men ignore or even abuse their families. Prolonged lack of food, associated with khat use, causes malnutrition and increased susceptibility to infectious diseases such as TB, hepatitis and HIV/AIDS. It impacts significantly economic productivity of the workforce and removes from the economy scarce capital that could be used for productive purposes. Khat is an illegal drug in the United States.
There is no organized effort in Somaliland to combat to combat this scourge. This is one of several areas where the Somali diaspora can make a positive contribution by emphasizing the dangers and negative implications of the regular use of khat. One Somaliland diaspora Web site, http://www.somalilandforum.com, currently contains a lead item that speaks out against the use of khat. There are also stirrings in Hargeisa that suggest there is real concern about khat. Last fall President Rayale issued a directive that limits the number of daily khat flights from Kenya and Ethiopia to no more than 50, which is down from about 150. He also ordered that khat no longer be imported by surface across land borders. It is not clear, however, if this order can or will be enforced.
Somaliland and the Region
Somaliland's longest border is with Ethiopia and ethnic Somali pastoralists on both sides of the border regularly cross it seeking seasonal pasturage. Landlocked Ethiopia has made minimal use of Somaliland's port of Berbera, even after ports in Eritrea became off limits. The European Union used Berbera in 1999 to ship 15,000 tons of food aid to Ethiopia. The EU resumed the use of Berbera late last year to send 20,000 tons of food aid to Ethiopia. If there is regular maintenance of the road between Berbera and Jijiga in Ethiopia, it is possible to ship 30,000 tons of food each month to eastern Ethiopia. For the first time ever, Ethiopian Airlines has established regular service between Addis Ababa and Hargeisa. Ethiopia and Somaliland have opened liaison offices in their respective capitals. There are regular high level visits between the two countries. President Rayale was in Addis Ababa early this year and a senior Ethiopian military delegation visited Somaliland last month.
Somaliland sees Ethiopia as an ally in its quest for support and recognition. Although Ethiopia understands that a stable, peaceful and independent Somaliland is in its interest, it is unwilling to be the first to recognize the government in Hargeisa. Somalia would immediately attribute nefarious motives to Ethiopian recognition of Somaliland, arguing that it wishes to balkanize Somalia and weaken Somali unity.
There are important clan ties between Somalilanders and the some 60 percent of the Djiboutian population that is Somali. Relations between Somaliland and Djibouti are correct and improving. President Rayale commented recently that Somaliland now has good relations with Djibouti. Nevertheless, Somaliland resents Djibouti's initiative in helping to create the TNG in Somalia and is still not entirely comfortable with the current Djiboutian leadership. Djibouti continues to have a complex set of financial and commercial links with the TNG. Its commitment to the preservation of Somali unity suggests that it wants to prevent the emergence of a viable and independent Somaliland. Even with the current tension in the relationship, there is considerable informal trade between the two countries, and because taxes are lower in Somaliland, many Djiboutians buy goods there. Somaliland officials suspect that Djibouti fears competition from the port of Berbera once it is fully rehabilitated.
Saudi Arabia poses a major dilemma for Somaliland. A significant financial backer of the TNG and supporter of it within the Arab League, Saudi Arabia was traditionally the major importer of Somaliland livestock. For the better part of the last five years, Saudi Arabia has banned livestock from Somaliland on the grounds that it might be infected with Rift Valley Fever. Somaliland denies the charges, and there does not appear to be any current scientific evidence to support the claim. Recent investigations by the Food and Agricultural Organization and World Health Organization found no evidence of Rift Valley Fever in Somaliland. Several Gulf States that import small quantities of Somaliland livestock have lifted the ban. Some observers suspect that the ban is linked to Saudi business interests involved in the importation of livestock from other countries.
In the meantime, the Saudi ban is doing grievous damage to the Somaliland economy. The ban has harmed nearly every kind of employment in the country-pastoralists, truck drivers, livestock traders, animal health staff, brokers, port employees and private business people. The impact is especially great in the port of Berbera. The town has been hard hit economically by the Saudi livestock ban although the recent arrival of food aid for Ethiopia should temporarily offset some of the loss. The large international airport built during the Soviet interlude is effectively shut down. The problem is aggravated because the government of Somaliland, at least until late last summer, did not have any access to the Saudi royal family and has been unable to make its case directly to the Saudi government. Somaliland is working to obtain international certification that its livestock is disease free in an effort to remove any pretense for the ban.
Egypt has maintained an interest in the Somali coast dating back several centuries. In more recent years, Egypt has been a supporter of Somali unity and a strong Somali state that can serve as a counterweight to Ethiopia. Eighty-six percent of the water reaching the Aswan Dam in Egypt emanates from Ethiopia. The Nile River is, of course, Egypt's lifeline, and the leadership in Cairo wants to maintain maximum leverage over Ethiopia. A unified Somalia that might one day reassert its claims to Somali-inhabited areas of Ethiopia and has close links to Egypt would add to this leverage. As a result, Egypt is one of five countries that has recognized the TNG and opposes an independent Somaliland. An Egyptian envoy visited Hargeisa last fall, congratulated Somaliland for the success it has achieved, and then urged it to participate in talks in Kenya on Somali unity with groups from Somalia. The Somaliland President rejected any suggestion of participating in the Kenyan-sponsored talks and reminded the Egyptian envoy that Egypt was one of the countries that recognized Somaliland's first independence on 26 June 1960.
Eritrea, which received de facto independence from Ethiopia in 1991 and de jure independence in 1993, seemingly is a country that would be sympathetic to Somaliland's independence. On the contrary, it supports the unity of Somalia and is one of five nations to recognize the TNG in Mogadishu. For its part, Somaliland is dismissive of the Eritrean precedent to bolster its own argument for independence. President Rayale stated recently that Somaliland, which first became independent in 1960, has "a better case" for independence than Eritrea. Eritrea's hostility towards Somaliland probably stems from the aftermath of the 1998 Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict. Both Ethiopia and Eritrea have realigned their relationships in the region in order to strengthen their respective positions against each other. Eritrea in 1999 and 2000 supported Oromo Liberation Front elements operating out of Somalia against Ethiopia. Like Egypt, Eritrea also sees a strong and unified Somalia as a counterweight to Ethiopia. It is not surprising, therefore, that Somaliland and Eritrea do not see eye to eye.
Sudan's policy on Somaliland is especially intriguing. Sudan has traditionally supported Somali unity and is one of the five countries that recognized the TNG in Mogadishu. Sudan has been dealing with its own civil war since 1983 and does not wish to take any step that would provide additional justification for an independent southern Sudan. Acceptance of an independent Somaliland might weaken its own case for Sudanese unity. In fact, Sudan sent a delegation to Hargeisa late last year to encourage Somaliland to take part in the Somali unity talks in Kenya. On the other hand, Sudan received the Mayor of Hargeisa in Khartoum last June when there were discussions on training for Somalilanders in Sudan, Sudan Airways flights to Hargeisa and a joint university program. Khartoum reportedly even agreed to establish an FM radio station to relay programs from Radio Khartoum and Radio Omdurman to Somaliland. Although little if anything has come of these discussions, it does suggest Sudan is willing to consider seriously closer cooperation with Somaliland.
Of all the countries in the region, Kenya's policy on Somalia and Somaliland is currently the most delicate. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development has charged Kenya with leading the Somali peace talks. These discussions are continuing in Nairobi without the participation of Somaliland. Like Ethiopia, Kenya is primarily interested in a peaceful and friendly neighbor that does not export refugees and is in complete control of its borders. Kenya is also concerned that terrorist acts in Nairobi and Mombassa may have had some support from elements in Somalia. At the same time, Kenya does not want a strong neighbor that one-day revives the Greater Somalia concept. For this reason, it is probably quietly sympathetic with an independent Somaliland. But as long as it is trying to solve the larger issue of peace in Somalia, it must remain completely neutral.
Somaliland and the United Nations
Somaliland is deeply disappointed that the United Nations played a key role in the process that led to the creation of the TNG and then allowed it to take Somalia's seat in the General Assembly. Somaliland also has a bad memory of the UN Mission to Somalia (UNOSOM) in the early and mid-1990s. UNOSOM spent hundreds of millions of dollars in Somalia to end a famine and engage in nation building, but took virtually no interest in Somaliland. For several years, UNOSOM officials did not even visit Somaliland.
On the other hand, Somalilanders acknowledge and appreciate a variety of assistance provided by specialized agencies of the United Nations. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has been instrumental in resettling in Somaliland Somali refugees from Ethiopia. The World Food Program periodically coordinates the delivery of food aid to the country. UNICEF and the World Health Organization have funded a number of small projects in Somaliland.
Somaliland and the Donor Community
Bilateral donors have not been very forthcoming in providing assistance to Somaliland. Some probably shy away for fear that provision of assistance connotes diplomatic recognition. That concern can be avoided, however, by channeling assistance through international and indigenous nongovernmental organizations. The European Union has been the most helpful over the past decade. Earlier this year the European Commission approved a 4.2 million Euro project to rehabilitate the core road network in Somaliland. The European Union earlier rebuilt many of Somaliland's bridges and rehabilitated some of the Berbera port facilities. United States development assistance to all of Somalia totals about $2.5 million annually. Most of it now goes to Somaliland because it is the only safe and stable part of the country. Somaliland is an excellent choice for increased rehabilitation and development assistance.
Somaliland and the Future
Those of you attending this conference know that Somaliland is almost obsessed with the question of recognition or, more correctly, nonrecognition. It is understandable when one considers that the United Nations, African Union and Arab League were quick to accept the TNG as the legitimate government of all of Somalia. Lack of recognition makes it especially difficult to attract foreign assistance and prohibits membership in such important organizations as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Somaliland officials have mastered all the arguments and precedents for recognition. They cite East Timor, Western Sahara, the breakup of Yugoslavia, etc. The government even published in 2001 a booklet, entitled Somaliland: Demand for International Recognition, to make its case.
Somaliland must now convince the rest of the world, and especially the members of the African Union, that its case is special and deserves support. So far, Somaliland has had no success in convincing the Assembly of the African Union that its independence should be accepted and that it should be granted membership. A more productive approach may now be to convince several key African countries to support it within the African Union. Important countries like South Africa, Algeria and Senegal, if convinced of the merits of Somaliland's case, could make an important difference. This does not rule out the possibility that an independent Somaliland accepted by the African Union could propose unification at a later date with a Somalia that finally achieves its own peace and unity. In this regard, the government of Somaliland seems to be taking a more assertive position. Visits earlier this year by President Rayale to Senegal and Mali and meetings in Addis Ababa with a range of diplomats underscore this point.
So long as the rest of Somalia remains a failed state, it is unreasonable to expect peaceful Somaliland to join willingly with its compatriots to the south. Nevertheless, it is up to Somaliland to convince others to accept its independence. It should continue to make its case with key African countries. It can also underscore its arguments by way of example. Building democratic institutions in Somaliland and resolving differences with Puntland are hard. Obtaining international recognition for these efforts is equally difficult. Dedicated Somaliland communities in the diaspora, like this one in Sweden, can have and are having a positive influence on achieving success for these goals. It is essential to continue the progress on creating a democratic Somaliland; African and international acceptance and recognition will eventually follow. In the meantime, international organizations and donor countries should provide more assistance to Somaliland. Disputing factions in Somalia might even learn from the Somaliland example that they, too, could benefit by achieving peace and stability. Thank you again for inviting me to address you today.
Note about the author: David H. Shinn was desk officer for Somalia at the U.S. Department of State from 1969 to 1971; deputy director of the Somalia Task Force in the State Department in 1992-1993; State Department coordinator for Somalia in 1993; director of East African Affairs (including Somalia) from 1993 to 1996; and U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia from 1996 to 1999. He is now an adjunct professor in the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Somaliland Times , Issue 59 March 8, 2003
Why Make Somaliland an Issue?
While Somaliland struggled alone for meeting the above challenges, it at the same time embarked on a parallel process of democratization. Though a lot still needs to be done, yet Somaliland's tremendous achievements in all the above areas cannot be overlooked. Instead of learning from this uniquely successful experiment for conflict resolution and nation-building, Somalia's defacto leaders continued, unfortunately, to deny that it even existed. In fact, the reasons why most of those leaders always insist on Somaliland's inclusion in any peace talks on Somalia has nothing to do with the idea of preserving Somali unity. They know that Somaliland will never reunite with Somalia. The actual cause for their anti-Somaliland stance stems from the fact that most of them are wanted in Somaliland in connection with war crimes committed against the civilian population during the eighties. These suspected war criminals live with the fear that an independent Somaliland could succeed in bringing them one day before justice, to account for the atrocities they had committed in this country while working for Siyad Barre's regime.
Pretending allegiance to the cause of "Greater Somalia" is also a good tactic for squeezing cash from Arab leaders who are interested in seeing Somalia as a "strong and unified" country that can possibly be used as a Trojan Horse against Ethiopia whenever the need arises. This familiar tactic utilized by Somalia's warlords for extortion and blackmailing seems to have worked on Bethwal Kiplagat, the Kenyan Mediator of the reconciliation process.
The talks are already in danger of collapsing, not because Somaliland is absent, but because the delegates have shown their inability to come to an agreement. Kiplagat will be wasting his time if he thinks Somaliland can be persuaded to send delegates to the talks over which he is presiding. Independent and peaceful Somaliland is in fact in the midst of a presidential election campaign. For the first time in over 30 years, Somalilanders will go to the polls on April 14th, 2003, to elect their next president with the election of legislators slated for May 2003. Under such circumstances, wouldn't it be utter foolishness and a great insult if the Somaliland government were asked to send representatives to Nairobi to discuss peace with Somalia's warlords?
Somaliland Times , Issue 59 March 8, 2003
"The People's Candidate - Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo"
"Every nation has the government it deserves" Joseph de Maistre
I am not a politician, I am not a member of any party machinery, I am not a professional pundit. I am an educated Somalilander who sees the future of their homeland hanging by a thread. I made an educated choice based on reason.
I see a candidate on the one hand, who doesn't campaign, who doesn't debate, who doesn't answer damning accusations, who isn't educated, who has gone from one catastrophic blunder to the next. President, you are this man.
On the other hand, there is a man whom history will record as one of the great patriarchs of the Somali people, Ahmed Silanyo. A man who truly believes in democratic ideals, not the pithy lip service paid to it by detractors. A man not only highly educated in the Western discourse, but a true "wise man" in the best tradition of our people. A man whose entire life is a testament to honesty, decorum and decency. There is an old saying -the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Look around at your chosen leaders people of Somaliland, past and present and ask this same question of yourself.
During the years of the Siad Barre regime, who was the most outspoken defender of northerners and human rights whilst holding the most senior positions in the former government of Somalia? Who stood up to the brutal Siad to his face without fear at huge personal risk? Who left behind a life of comfort, security and a young family to defend our nation during its hour of need whilst others waited it out in Mogadishu until the time was good for them? Who initiated and organized the famous Forum For Peace, which brought about the ceasefire agreement between the warring parties in the so-called Xarbal Aqnam war around Berbera in 1992? Who initiated the movement, which brought about an end to the internal war of 1996, which ended at Beer in the Burao region where formal agreement of cessation of hostilities was finalized and exchange of prisoners was undertaken? Who has been your rock when the ground beneath your troubled feet was shaking Somaliland?
Certain pundits under the noxious spell of UDUB have been spouting endless socio-political quasi-philosophical jargon to dress up an essentially boneless, defunct argument, that UDUB is something worth voting for. It is not. If we have a FAIR and FREE election in the truest sense, UDUB will get their marching orders by mid-Spring.
Our roads are still hazardous and un-built. Our sewers are over flowing, our economic condition critical, our schools under resourced and under manned, our hospitals under equipped and over burdened. They say Rome wasn't built in a day but this government has not even lifted a finger. UDUB has virtually achieved NOTHING for our people in the period of time they have held the reigns. Instead they try and distract our people by sending ridiculous little spurious missions abroad headed by some semi-recognizable name in an effort to convince the people that they are acting like a state. Put your house in order UDUB!
UDUB and Rayale are petrified. They have resorted to resurrecting political dinosaurs, let alone anything else in their desperate effort to throw everything they have against the tide that has turned against them for good. One UDUB pundit writes that the main bete-noir of the opposition parties is the issue of money. Of course it is, and rightly so. He himself admits that "inexperienced and unethical employees of the state use the resources of the state" for electoral purposes! And what is his solution? The implementation of certain "protocols". How more academic and removed from the de-facto ground situation in Hargeisa must this man be? The all-pervasive arrogance that pervades entire UDUB machinery from Rayale down to the foot soldiers is reflected in another comment by the same UDUB writer. He states that the opposition should be given "some resources so that their campaign efforts are not seriously retarded". So is a little retardation acceptable then? He goes on to qualify this modicum of conciliation by stating however, that "the municipal election results" show that they were "not too greatly impacted by this problem". How ridiculous. The very fact that in the face of such huge obstacles the parties managed to fight the UDUB/state controlled election is a testament to the fact that some people cannot be bought by UDUB and wanted to make their voices heard. They did their best but they couldn't compete with a government/party that was getting 90% approval and turnout in regions formally inhabited by a few donkeys and a goat.
The People of Somaliland will not be fooled by hollow gestures coated in "constitutionalism" to hide more nefarious goings on in the dark and sinister corners of UDUB. We all have copies of the Constitution. Rayale has NOT been "constitutionally elected". His position is provided for "under" the constitution because he took over from the deceased President Egal, God rest his soul. The first constitutionally "elected" President of Somaliland is YET to be decided.
DO NOT give yourself the laurels just yet Rayale, look behind you, the people of Somaliland are waking up from slumber, there's a new dawn coming. Watch for the rising sun.
Somaliland Times , Issue 59 March 8, 2003
Who Is Abdirahman Aw Ali?
Sadly, the fallen heroes are already out of mind and the veterans are marginalized. Worse, Somaliland has handsomely rewarded the ("faqash"), by design, those who resisted the Somali National Movement (SNM). It is sad. For over a decade, the brutal dictator of Siyad Barre with one of the largest army in Sub-Saharan Africa under his command has bombarded and shelled the cities and innocent civilians of Somaliland without mercy. As if that wasn't cruel enough, he hired mercenaries from South Africa to finish the job; but it was not meant to be. The SNM Mujahidiin have fought to the last drop and defeated the despot. Like any other war, the victory was achieved with blood and lots of it. Mujahid Lixli, Axmed Dhagaq, Koodboor, maxamed Cali, Cali Jowher, ina koosar are only few of the fallen heroes. Out of respect one would think Somaliland would at least assign a day for the remembrance of the fallen Mujahidin and the veterans. Rather, the Mujahidin are endangered species and that is a shame. Fortunately, it appears the days of the "faqash" are numbered and that Somaliland would soon pay tribute to their heroes and heroines. The Kulmiye Party central Committee has recently elected Cabdirahman Aw Cali, a veteran, as its candidate for the vice-presidency. I find this a fitting occasion to remind us who Cabdirahman Aw Cali is?
The SNM veterans have endured isolation, hunger, thirst, bodily harm and injuries and loss of comrades but Mujahid Cabdirahmaan Aw Cali has endured more. The Mujahid was shunned, excommunicated, stigmatized and ostracized for breaking ranks with his primary social base, the clan (even though a good number of the Mujahid's clan supported the Movement, he was the only one in the SNM military wing; I stand corrected). Moreover, the Mujahid has endured the derogatory remarks directed at him whenever tempers flared.
The Somaliland familial and clan structure is deep rooted and those who break away from the tentacles of that octopus and sever that bond are few who have attained a state of mind and inner peace within themselves. The Mujahid has trusted his moral judgment and for health and for sickness, remained a staunch Mujahid. The SNM Mujahidiin as a group was selfless brave men/women with determination and Cabdirahman Aw Cali typifies and embodies that spirit and more. Mujahid Cabdirahman is independent minded leader and not a follower. His character and integrity is beyond reproach and his loyalty to Somaliland is beyond doubt. His conscience is clear and he has no chip on his shoulder.
Many believe that Cabdirahman Aw Cali would have been the President of Somaliland today if he kowtowed to Egal. Mujahid Cabdirahman isn't a man easily intimidated. His classmates found that out early in life at the hockey-play ground in Sheikh Secondary School; Siyad Barre and his formidable evil forces found that out when the Mujahid met them at the battle ground; some of his clan found that out when he challenged their conscience; and Egal found that out the hard way. For the record, it is worth mentioning that Egal was forced to pick SNM Mujahid as his running mate by the SNM Mujahidiin who called him from exile and later nominated him for the candidacy of the presidency. Among the SNM group, Cabdirahman was the candidate chosen by consensus and hence Egal had no other option. This time Egal was a man in need and his tendency to pick the weak was thwarted. The Mujahid who defeated the well-armed Siyad forces wasn't about to pander to Egal's dominance and prominence. He firmly stood on his ground and Egal made no secret of his plan to drop Cabdirahman off the ticket next time around. In spite of that threat, Cabdirahman refused to flinch. As a man of principle, he continued tabling the proper course of action to resolve the issues without fear and reservations. Once again, Mujahid Cabdirahman Aw Cali listened to his heart and not his head. Indeed, he is a man of conviction. That is Cabdirahman Aw Cali but who is Ahmed Yassin?
True to his political dogma of picking the least qualified as his subordinate, Egal choose Rayaale as his running mate, a close relative of Abdirahman, after finding out that Cabdirahman Aw Cali wasn't a YES man. As usual, the Gurti rubber-stamped Egal's choice and the rest is history.
Today, as a result of Egal's choice, Somaliland is breaking at the seams. The hope for recognition is fading, the ban of livestock export is standing, the Ethiopian border is still closed, owners of the goods and other property Ethiopia confiscated aren't being compensated, the border skirmishes are alarmingly getting more frequent, Sool is off limit to elections, corruption is being legitimized and criminal activities are increasing by the day. Additionally, the term of the two Houses is coming to an end on May and the election laws haven't been commissioned yet much less earmarking resources for the upcoming milestone. And guess what? The fear is another extension is inevitable. There is slew of other issues including the budget hemorrhaging in red and the besieged President, which illustrates that the President of the Nation is incapable of governing. Obviously, the President is weak and by extension Somaliland is weak. The result: Peace and stability, the hallmark of Somaliland is in danger.
But hope is on the way, in light of this paralyses and fear, Mujahid Mohamed Ahmed Mohamoud (Silanyo) and Mujahid Cabdirahman Aw Cali as a team are determined to resuscitate and rescue the country once again. Compare this team with Rayaale and Ahmed Yassin. No chance.
Somaliland Times , Issue 59 March 8, 2003
Government Clarifies Position on Somalia Peace Process
Responding to statements attributed to IGAD's envoy to the Somali peace talks, Bethwel Kiplagat, Somaliland's Minister of Information Abdillahi M Duale said his government regretted attempts by some governments to utilize the peace process as a means of undermining Somaliland's stability and sovereignty.
The full text of the Minister's statement is as follows:
"In a recent interview with the East African Standard (Feb 17-23, 2003) Kenya's special envoy to Somalia, Ambassador BethweL Kiplagat stated that the 'Council of Ministers of IGAD Frontline states have not recognized Somaliland.' Hence, you could say they are for territorial integrity and the unity of Somalia." "It is implied that Somaliland is included in Somalia. Secondly, they have a request from the delegation here that Somaliland should be invited."
Well, the special envoy seems to have misread gov't of Somaliland's (GOS) position that was presented to IGAD and frontline states on numerous occasions. The following is the clear position of GOS.
Somaliland's Position with regards to current peace process for Somalia
The GOS is encouraged by the efforts of the lGAD member states especially the "Frontline states" to reinvigorate the Somali peace process conference, under the auspices of the gov't of Kenya. The GOS also welcomes the support extended to this initiative by the African Union, the United Nations and the donor countries.
The GOS urges all authorities, factions and groups in Somalia to participate constructively in the upcoming reconciliation conference without preconditions.
Somaliland is not a party to the Somali conflict. There are no Somaliland military forces operating in Somalia's territory and the GOS has refrained from interfering in Somalia's internal affairs despite numerous provocations.
The GOS is prepared to join other governments of the region in bringing peace to Somalia. However, Somaliland will not take part in the IGAD peace process, nor send observers, unless accorded by IGAD the status due to a sovereign state.
When a legitimate, representative government is established in Somalia, the GOS is prepared to enter into talks with that government concerning the nature of the relationship between the two states. The GOS seeks to establish peaceful co-existence and fraternal relations with a future government in Somalia.
The GOS regrets the attempts of some governments to utilize the peace process as a means of undermining Somaliland's stability, sovereignty and territorial integrity and urges them to channel their energies in a more constructive way towards the restoration of peace and governance in Somalia. The GOS regrets the attempts of some governments to utilize the peace process as a means of undermining Somaliland's stability, sovereignty and territorial integrity and urges them to channel their energies in a more constructive way towards the restoration of peace and governance in Somalia. Any claims to sovereignty over Somaliland by a future Somali authority will be viewed by the GOS as an indication of hostile intent. The GOS urges Somali leaders, member states of IGAD, the AU, the UN and donor countries to abstain from any unfriendly declaration or act that could bring further conflict to the region.
Somaliland received its independence from Great Britain on June 26th, 1960 and was immediately recognized by the international community as a sovereign states. Somaliland's subsequent, voluntarily union with Somalia was dissolved on May 18th 1991 when Somaliland retrieved its sovereignty and established a separate government.
Somaliland's independence is based upon the right to self-determination entrenched in the Charters of the Organizations of African Unity and the United Nations. This right was freely and democratically expressed on 31 May 2001 in a referendum. An overwhelming majority of the electorate voted in favor of a new constitution that affirmed Somaliland's independent status. International observers described the process as free, fair and consistent with international norms for referenda and elections.
The GOS has no mandate to compromise Somaliland's sovereign status. Any modification of Somaliland's sovereign status requires endorsement by referendum and the approval of an absolute majority in parliament.
Somaliland's demand for international recognition is consistent with Article III of the OAU Charter and Article IV of the Constitutive Ac of African Union, which pertains to the integrity of borders existing on achievement of independence. Other African states have been united with neighboring states and subsequently reclaimed their independence in accordance with these principles, including Eritrea, Gambia, and the Sahrawi Republic. The dissolution of the United Arab Republic followed a similar pattern.
Somaliland's declaration of independence is predicated upon the territory's prior existence as a recognized, independent state. It therefore does not set a precedent for the break-up of Somalia or for other secessionist groups in Africa. To the contrary, Somaliland fully respects the unity and territorial integrity of (Former Italian) Somalia."
Somaliland Times , Issue 59 March 8, 2003
Scandinavians to Assist in Teachers Training
Africa News, March 7, 2003 (Addis Tribune)
Somalia; Somaliland Presidential Election Chronicles: Back to the Future? - Part III
A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state, especially of the highest of all. The government is everywhere sovereign in the state, and the constitution is in fact the government. Aristotle, Politics (Book 3)
Two forces are vying for the future of Africa: one is authoritarian, the other democratic. Curiously, the authoritarian strain was once democratic; previously, it had embraced the ideology of democracy so as to awaken the masses for insurrection against imperialism and colonialism. At the dawn of independence many of these once democratic organizations and leaders transformed themselves into one party states and later into deadly and predatory autocrats. There are many reasons for this transformation. Two clearly important points were: first, national movements and their charismatic leaders were products of history, the necessary opposite to the forces of colonialism. In a word, colonialism created its own antagonist and in so doing set the seeds for its eventual end. These movements and leaders became, as it were, the mirror image of the forces that they were trying to dislodge because no other political action was open to them at that juncture. Etching up the radical nature of their message at time of the cold war would have made the colonial power more intransigent and with less incentive to quit their respective countries - Mozambique, Angola and Guinea Bissau being ready examples.
The system of government inherited from the colonial power, as well, was by definition set on a template that was hardly appropriate for development - both human and material. In short: the system was autocratic and its manifestation in post-colonial life would produce the same results: authoritarianism.
Secondly, national movements became chauvinistic and authoritarian precisely because of their own historical raison d'etre. The leaders of the national movements were men in a hurry, they had to "catch up" with the Europeans, and they had to show their mettle by disproving the racist characterizations of Africans as a people "without a history". Their transformation into authoritarian one party states in turn has wrought havoc in Africa, betraying their democratic credentials and the very people who stood up against colonialism. International authoritarianism was replaced by local ones.
Writing some five years after the fall of the Berlin wall, a writer on transitions to democracy suggested that "the aftermath of authoritarianism, then, may be far less rewarding and far more dangerous than we thought in 1989-it may be a precursor of a new authoritarianism as the genesis of new threats undercuts the potential for any sustained democratic transition." After Authoritarianism: Democracy Or Disorder? Contributors: Daniel N. Nelson - editor. Publisher: Praeger. Westoport, CT. Page Number: vii. Publication Year: 1995.
The author is suggesting an important if not profound dilemma. How does a country sustain or even give root to democracy given that history has proven more than once that transitions to democratic rule often end up, to use a worn-out 1970s word, in a counter-revolution? Put another way, how can these negative and anti-democratic tendencies be avoided particularly when the struggle for democracy was/is a bloody affair that exposes the people of Africa to untold suffering? These questions on democracy and the state in Africa are central questions to the future of this continent. This short intervention cannot replace a more sustained debate on the issue. However, it is this discourse that is material to my understanding of my country which has started along the long journey to democracy. By showing some facets of political life in Somaliland, I believe that the future of Africa can already be seen in many countries that are undergoing this transition to democracy, Somaliland being a close example in the Horn of Africa.
To be sure, Somaliland is a land of camels and poetry. Richard Burton, traveling to through Somaliland in the mid 1800s, called the people he met on his way to the famed court in Abyssinia, "a fierce race of republicans". Fierce in that he was attacked and nearly killed and republican for his romantic view - from a Victorian order nonetheless - of a free and near anarchical social landscape. Somaliland, though, has always had deep roots as far as "political authority" is concerned. Somaliland has about six major clan institutions that have hereditary legitimacy as Sultans. Most of the clans signed protective treaties with the British in the mid-1800s. After about a hundred years, nationalist-anti-colonial groups emerged. Later Somaliland was granted independence and was a recognized state for five days.
To run history along for our purposes, Somaliland's main claim to self-government is through the colonial question, through this contact and, subsequently, like all African states, a drawing up of borders. Only Somaliland chose a different path that in hindsight was - to use a quote from none other than Churchill - "an enigma wrapped up in a mystery". While most countries inherited their respective states, Somaliland was one of the only few states that pursued a pan-Africanist, pan-Somali dream.
Somaliland gave up its state and sovereignty to its neighbor and sisterly people in Italian Somaliland. What followed is public knowledge and need not be recounted here. Suffice to say that Somaliland is back some fourty years after lost sovereignty, genocide, and the wholesale destruction of the country by a dictator, Somaliland is again trying to disprove everyone by building a second chance "one thorn tree at a time." I thank Rakiya Omeer for this quote, which is in an article that she wrote about how peace was achieved in Somaliland. But this is to anticipate.
What then is special about Somaliland, when the very word Somali is now associated with cruel scenes of barbarism and chaos? This picture is flawed when it comes to Somaliland. Indeed, the facts in Somaliland give me the courage to write in such high-brow terms precisely because Somaliland, at least in my eyes, represents the beginning of the end of the ideas about authoritarianism that is deeply etched in the consciousness of this crooked part of Africa
The three main principals that characterize the emergence of democracy in Somaliland: the ratification of the constitutions by the people of Somaliland; the ascendance of the Vice-President to the Presidency of Somaliland after the death of the late M. H. Ibrahim Egal; and, the coming multi-party elections in Somaliland.
These three pillars constitute a major political breakthrough as far as norms and customs are concerned. Moreover, they represent a fundamental shift to the ideas of the rule of law and the constitution as the legal guide for the affairs of government. The people of Somaliland after years of discussion and debate, including bouts of civil war, signed on to a constitution which was ratified by 97% of the population. The constitution is the one single legacy of the late President. It is not perfect, it has flaws, but it is a document that can be improved upon and in the process help Somalilanders experience and give their constitution root in the coming years.
The death of the late president tested the resolve of the people of Somaliland and their institutions. The ratified constitution took effect immediately as the new President was sworn in. This one event unfolded the next sequence of events that has led most observers to look in awe as ordinary men and women welcomed their new President with open arms and goodwill. Municipal elections have been held and have been given a passing grade. Somaliland's meager resources and the coming parliamentary and Presidential elections present real challenges - an issue that I will be writing about in the next issue of my collaboration with Dr. AbdiShakur Jowhar - for Somaliland. However, there is no turning back; Somaliland has tentatively set on foot forward towards its own democratic dispensation.
Many of the questions raised in this piece will be answered by the next article.
BBC Monitoring Reports, March 5, 2003/HornAfrik Online text web site,
SOMALILAND COURT ORDERS PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRANTS TO DECLARE THEIR WEALTH
BBC Monitoring Reports, March 2, 2003/HornAfrik Online text web site, Mogadishu, in Somali 2 Mar 03 SOMALILAND FORCES REPORTEDLY PUT ON HIGH ALERT AT ETHIOPIAN BORDER Forces of the Somaliland administration have been put on high alert. According to reports from Hargeysa Somaliland administrative HQ, the administration's military commander has ordered the forces to be fully ready in their camps. No explanation has been issued as to why the Somaliland forces have been put on such high alert. Emerging reports say Ethiopian forces have been deployed in large numbers at the border with Somaliland in the course of the week. .
Somaliland Times , ISSUE 58 March 1, 2003
Somalia and Survival in the Shadow Of the Global Economy (Part II)
Reno is a specialist in African politics and the politics of "collapsing states." He is the author of Corruption and State Politics in Sierra Leone (Cambridge, 1995) and Warlord Politics and African States (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998). His current work examines violent commercial organizations in Africa, the former Soviet Union, and the Balkans and their relationships to state power and global economic actors.
Reno's research takes him to places such as Sierra Leone, Congo, and Central Asia where he talk to insurgents (including so-called "warlords"), government officials, and foreigners involved in these conflicts
With the world economy. It is unlikely that this political project will generate nation-state identities of the sort seen among dominant states, as indeed independent Somalia failed to become. Instead, the organization of identity and political community adapts to manage connections with the rest of the world within constraints and adaptations to marginality.
Divergent outcomes are explained in this work in an institutional framework shaping the calculus of opportunities, much like those who attribute conflict and networks leading to state collapse to rational calculations of vulnerability and fear. Institutions are not limited to clan, ethnic groups, or remnants of the collapsing state. They include novel business and legal arrangements within networks in the world economy, diasporas, and new alliances with non-state international agencies. They may or may not be rooted in custom and tradition, but are central to regulating who is prestigious, who gets resources, who is considered legitimate, and most important, who exercises coercion. Douglass North identified them in his classic broad definition of institutions as `the rules of the game in a society, or more formally, the humanely devised constraints that shape human interaction'. In the cases here these institutions include unofficial and clandestine linkages, which often play an integral role in how local leaders construct their authority. Somali overseas traders, for example, have long relied upon inter-clan networks of trust and accommodation for economic survival. The persisting lack of international recognition of Somaliland's sovereignty encourages authorities in Hargeisa, the country's capital, to continue to place a premium on these accommodations. But it also forces authorities to contract out state services to local communal enterprises in lieu of the economic regulatory opportunities and access to global commercial practices that outsiders' formal recognition of Somaliland's sovereignty would permit.
Four tentative hypotheses incorporate this modified institutional approach to explaining divergent experiences with conflict and identity formation in the wake of state collapse in the cases examined below:
One: Unofficial, non-state institutions, including those that respond to global economic shifts and increased marginality, in some instances reduce risks of fragmentation that come with state collapse. The pursuit of a state-building project and the consolidation of identity around new syncretic adaptations to global conditions can be explained with reference to informal, mediating institutions that defuse inter-clan (and inter-ethnic) security dilemmas.
Two: When formal and informal institutional frameworks favour old informal patronage networks and clandestine economic channels over the interests of new or outsider elites, the successful intervention of clan (or ethnic) entrepreneurs is less likely, reducing the risks of violence.
Three: When elites adapt old informal institutions to maintain an old state or build a new one, the risk of fragmentation is lower. New institutions and channels of resources such as roundtables, national conferences, NGO aid, and outside military intervention can increase security dilemmas, offer new niches for political entrepreneurs, and thus increase risk of political fragmentation.
Four: If internal conditions noted above are met, local actors are able to exploit opportunities in the international economy to pursue self-determination. These strategies counterbalance and manipulate otherwise strong pressures implicit in international norms and laws that otherwise undermine self-determination efforts outside the framework of existing boundaries of globally recognized states.
Taken together, these hypotheses acknowledge that marginal status in global economic and political networks can become political tools in the hands entrepreneurs. This can take the form of exploiting inter-clan or inter-ethnic conflicts. It is also compatible with strategies that do a better job of containing violence, and are capable of sustaining more diverse political communities, though not in the mold of old fashioned nation-states.
Some scholars cite an immutable `call of kinship' and durable `ethnocratic state' predating colonial rule to explain the failure to sustain a centralized state in Somalia after 1990. In this work I recognize that clan and lineage play important roles in Somali politics and are crucial units of analysis. A Somali scholar, for example, identifies six major clans and at least 67 sub-clans that have become defensive networks against predation in the 1990s. Clans are taken as basic determinants of social order elsewhere such as in Chechnya: `in peacetime, they recognize no sovereign authority and may fragment into a hundred rival clans'. Yet if social structure, the subject of the next section, plays an important role in shaping the organization of conflict, assumptions of immutability do not explain why some clan groups are able to contain entrepreneurs of violence in their midst while others cooperate with them or become their targets. If, as propositions above propose, people in these social units can tailor their own organization, procedures and solutions to concrete circumstances, then it is more useful to look at clan and lineage structures through the lens of political and economic institutions, both formal and informal in this light. In that case, colonial rule emerges as an important influence on social organization and social control of resources used in warfare in the 1990s. Differences in colonial rule and local responses also help explain contemporary variations in politics.
State Collapse and Violent Fragmentation in the South
Italian administrators imported into Southern Somalia their own experiences with state economic planning and heavy state support for large-scale enterprises. This tight connection between state policy in the capital and commerce appeared when the Duke of Abruzzi (famous for Alaskan and Himalayan adventures) in 1919 established the Societa Agricola Italo Somala (SAIS) in the fertile river valleys of southern Somalia. He and other concession holders discovered that they could not attract workers from among the Gosha people of the area that had migrated to these river valleys from the Zanzibar coast in the pre-colonial era. Small holders were reluctant to leave their farms and trade social obligations and protections of family and lineage based production for wages. European concessionaires identified the problem as following from the tendency of local elders to discourage young men from accepting paid labor that would undermine elders' control over bride price. Oral histories from the Jubba River Valley cite worries over the potential for local disruption that loss of elder control over matrimony would cause. If young men could afford to marry whomever they pleased, this would favour some families over others, perhaps permanently. This risked giving young men means to ignore local sensibilities concerning what constituted appropriate marital matches, which involved concerns about family alliances and redress for past wrongs or disadvantage, all social constraints that are important later if one is interested in controlling fighters or freeing them to prey on communities.
The launch of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia from Somalia in 1935 helped to `solve' this labour problem. The conscription of 40,000 Somali troops gave Italian officials the means to forcibly remove local farmers from their land and give it to Italian enterprises. Removing young men from among settled populations in southern river valleys, disrupted local food production in the late 1930s. Food shortages and higher prices ensured that more local people sought wage labour contracts, some of which provided food as in-kind compensation. Some young men discovered what elders feared, that employment on plantations growing bananas for the Italian market freed them from local customary constraints. Employers also recruited young women to provide workers with wives from outside the area to convince their workers to settle on plantations. This change increased matrimonial options for young men but undermined the role of married women in elders' constructions of flexible, cross cutting ties between local lineages.
Heavy state subsidies for commercial farms also initiated a pattern that outlived the Somali state in the 1990s of drawing powerful actors from the capital into southern economic and political affairs. It was the intention of colonial administrators from the start that large-scale commercial agriculture be distributed according to political criteria, not simply efficiency. Specifically, investment was designed to uproot local producers' control over land and force them to engage fully with a national economy. By the mid 1930s SAIS became Italy's main banana supplier and Somalia's largest commercial agricultural enterprise behind the shield of import tariffs and state subsidies. The export quota survived the collapse of the Somali state through terms of the Lom, Conventions that protected Somali banana exports to the European Union up to 1999. This colonial policy resembles later policies of `national self-sufficiency' that masked capital-based elites' manipulation of state economic policies to divert assets for themselves and weaken regional power bases of rival politicians. This patronage-based allocation of economic opportunities drew outsiders into the region to control land and monopolize access to economic opportunities with help from the coercive force of the state to back up their claims. When violence increased in the 1980s, this elite was able to replace state militias with young men of their own kin from outside the area. These young men were refugees from conflict in other regions, freed from customary limits that their home communities would have exercised over their use of violence.
Thus economic expansion and government revenue in Italian Somalia and the independent Somali state did not develop on the basis of global competitiveness. Instead it relied on violent accumulation and privileged connections to political authority in the capital. Colonial officials used this strategy to bolster a formal economy export market that could provide revenues to the state. Despite the eventual diminishment of formal state control over transactions, colonial policy resembled later practice in that beneficiaries relied upon the support of key officials-later, patronage bosses-who used coercion and public asserts to ensure commercial success. For example, 1955 banana exports to Italy provided $7.6 million of the colony's total exports of $10.8 million only because SAIS still enjoyed prewar tariff exemptions and state-regulated pricing in Italy. A World Bank team estimated that Somali bananas cost 40 percent more to produce and ship to Italy than did West African and Canary Island bananas. Likewise, SAIS also produced textiles, soap, and sugar for local consumption at 40 percent above world prices, again with the benefit of tariff protection and easy access to state credits, policies that continued after colonial rule. Thus the World Bank report accurately predicted that Somalia would require heavy financial support long after achieving independence in 1960, a responsibility that expanded with large-scale aid projects that boosted commercial farming to include about 20 percent of all farming land in southern Somalia's river valleys.
Despite state support for agriculture-or rather because of it-Italian Somalia entered the 1950s heavily reliant upon direct subsidies from Rome to pay for administration. From 1951 to 1957, the colony generated average annual revenues of only $5.4 million, requiring an additional Italian government subsidy averaging $9 million. `The hard facts', wrote investigators, `are that the traditional sectors of the economy offer little prospect for rapid expansion, while European agriculture has grown up on a largely artificial basis'. This did not deter multilateral creditors and foreign donors from taking the burden of financing projects after independence in 1960. During the 1960s and 1970s foreign donors and creditors supported a large expansion of plantation agriculture. From Independence to 1981, 18 percent of remaining small holders in the Jubba River Valley had their communal and private holdings forcibly expropriated to state farms, not including land lost to reservoirs. This was usually done without compensation. The impact on local communities was more dramatic than figures suggest, since water diversions to large irrigation schemes left additional land unfertile.
Somaliland Times , ISSUE 58 March 1, 2003
"I Am Less Optimistic About The Situation In Somalia Except For Somaliland"
Washington DC, Feb 24, 2003 (The East African/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) - David Shinn worked in Africa for 17 years as a US ambassador and as an officer in Foreign Service. He also directed the Office of East African Affairs at the State Department, and helped coordinate US relief efforts in Somalia in 1992 and 1993. He currently teaches courses in African affairs at George Washington University. He spoke to Special Correspondent Kevin J. Kelly on the Kenya government's anti-corruption campaign and the prospects for peace and stability in the region.
How about the Kibaki team's policies regarding East Africa? Do you think they'll be substantially different from Moi's?
There won't be any significant difference regarding East Africa. I'm glad to see Gen Lazarus Sumbeiywo is continuing his efforts to mediate the conflict in Sudan. I'm convinced that Kenya will continue to exercise leadership in regard to Somalia as well as Sudan. Kenya is the only country in IGAD that is able to do this now. It has the ear as well as the respect of all the countries in IGAD.
Do you share the optimism others have expressed concerning a peace settlement in Sudan?
Positive things have certainly happened, and I'm optimistic that they will continue to happen. But there are sure to be setbacks as well. It's not going to be a smooth process. If the majority of members of both warring sides agree it is in their interest to end the civil war, then perhaps we will see peace. But it's sure to be a long, hard slog.
Do you see any prospect for stability in Somalia?
I'm much less optimistic about the situation in Somalia, except for Somaliland, which is doing quite well, thank you. Civil society does seem to want peace in Somalia, but it's the guys with the guns and the militias who will ultimately decide whether there's going to be peace or not.
Is it likely that Somalia will be split into several parts?
I think that eventually some sort of federal structure will be put in place. There's obviously going to be reluctance to move in that direction, but it's probably the best way to bring about peace and stability. I don't believe that Somalia is going to remain a failed state forever.
How do you assess the role of al Qa'eda in the region? Do you think it now has a base in coastal communities in Kenya?
Al Itihaad clearly did have a base at Ras Kamboni during the 1990s. But the United Nations inspected the area after September 11 and found that it had been cleared out. Al Itihaad does have some kind of connection with al Qa'eda. In my opinion, however, it's not been satisfactorily proven yet that there are close links with Osama bin Laden. I'm reluctant to suggest there is an al Qa'eda base anywhere in Somalia. I've seen no proof that there is. It was part of my responsibilities while working at the US embassy in Kenya in the mid-1960s to stay in touch with what was happening on the Coast. Some of the communities on the Coast do appear to have become more radicalized. I don't think al Qa'eda has a base there, but there are probably links to al Qa'eda among some people on the Coast.
What will happen on the Coast and elsewhere in the region if the United States does attack Iraq?
There will probably be demonstrations and such, but the real damage for the United States will be more subterranean - behind the scenes. There will be a much greater concern about US policies. There will be a negative impact on the United States' ability to man-oeuvre there in the future.
Somaliland Times , ISSUE 58 March 1, 2003
Ministry of Finance Fails to Account for Billions of Shillings in Gov't Revenues
Hargeisa: Somaliland's Ministry of Finance has failed to account for how at least 19 billion Somaliland Shillings in government revenues for fiscal year 2002 were spent. According to account statements by the State Accountant General, the amount represented a surplus income over the Sl Sh 88.9 billion previously budgeted for 2002. However, the Ministry of Finance has only acknowledged a surplus of 16 billion shillings out of the 19 reported by the Accountant General's office.
These discrepancies and others were uncovered earlier this week by Haatuf and the Somaliland Times as the Minister of Finance, Hussein Farah Doodi, struggled to finalize the government's new budget for fiscal year 2003. The budget, which is expected to be around Sl Sh 97 Billion, will come before the House of Representatives today.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the total of government revenues for 2002 amounted to 105 billions while a figure of 106 billions is indicated in a report by the Accountant General that reveals the total actual expenditure for 2002 as Sl Sh 87,503,459,694 instead of the budgeted Sl Sh 88,852,000,000.
Though the Ministry of Finance concedes that a surplus has been achieved, it yet reports owing private creditors a sum of Sl Sh 7.8 billion as expenditures incurred by the government in 2002.
The Minister of Finance also appears to have violated government financial regulations when he wrote on Feb 1, 2003 to the Bank of Somaliland to honor payment of Sl Sh 20 million for the rehabilitation of the residence of the Minister of Information, Abdillahi M. Duale, a close friend of his, as an advance against "Emergencies Head."
The payment order did not go through the normal accounting procedures but was made in the form of a letter signed by Doodi, despite prohibitive standing instructions disallowing usage of funds under the emergencies budget line before the month of September.
Allocations for the Ministry of Information under the budget proposal for this year appear to be comparatively quite generous. According to Doodi's plan, the Ministry of Information is to get around 311 million shillings as stationery, fuel and telephone costs, a sum that is roughly equivalent to the total allocations assigned under the same sub-head to the four larger ministries of Interior, RR&R, Commerce and Foreign Affairs put together.
Under a sub-head titled "allocations for outstanding bills", Sl Sh 165.35 million are to go to the Information Ministry against Sl Sh 339.4 million for Ministry of Aviation. The two ministries actually get between themselves the largest and second largest of the funds allocated under this budget line.
It is also unclear why Sl Sh 313.5 million will be granted to the Aviation Ministry as allocation to cover fuel costs against Sl Sh 329 million allotted for the whole police of Somaliland. The way the funds have been appropriated shows fiscal irresponsibility on the part of Minister Doodi and his staff.
For instance, there is no apparent logic in allocating 31 million shillings in telephone expenditure to the obscure Ministry of Industry that occupies one room office in the Maandeeq compound against none for the Somaliland police. This Ministry's budget allocation for telephones exceeds the appropriations given to the Army, Interior and Custodial Guards (Prisons) added together.
Finance Ministry officials remained non-committal on allegations of corruption directed against them. Frustrated by their lack of response, our sister newspaper Haatuf had in its Monday edition challenged Doodi to deny a story it ran that day on missing government revenues. Minister Doodi is expected to appear before the House today to submit a budget of approximately 97 billion Somaliland Shillings or 8 billions more than last year's. About 58 billions are earmarked as an allocation for salaries and allowances, 13 billions for security forces rations and 3.3 billion as national emergencies with the last budget head being administered by the Presidency.
Allocations to the offices of the President and Vice-President will amount to Sl Sh 3.25 billion and 1.19 billion respectively. Around 18.5 billion shillings will be allotted to other government agencies.
Meanwhile, the Somaliland Times has learned that Minister Doodi is building himself a two-story villa in Hargeisa.
Somaliland Times , ISSUE 58 March 1, 2003
Lessons Learned from the Civil Society Symposium
The other meeting, a symposium on civil society organizations, was held in the last week of February. This was a much bigger meeting, attended by hundreds of delegates, mostly from Somalia, and to a lesser extent Somaliland. Bringing such a large number of people together was certainly a very ambitious project. However, one of the weak points that later had a negative impact on this meeting was the fact that the organizers, NOVIB, have not been conscious enough about Somaliland's sensitivities, particularly when it comes to the issue of independence and past war crimes.
Operating from Nairobi and served by Somali political entrepreneurs and consultants posing as human rights or civil rights activists, NOVIB presented two studies: Mapping Somali Civil Society and Donor Assistance towards Somalia. But it seemed that the authors had only "Somalia" in their minds for most of the time while writing these two reports. The two studies not only smacked of anti-Somaliland perspectives but also contained such misleading and deceptive statements as "There is recognition that it was not only the people of Somaliland who were wronged under the regime of Siyad Barre but that the majority of all Somalis suffered during this period."
This is of course something often repeated by Somalis who fear that they as individuals, or members of their clans, could be implicated in the genocides that took place in Somaliland during the eighties. It is also akin to saying "It was not only the Jews who had suffered during the holocaust but also most of the Germans as well." Because of the repetition of some insensitive literature, Somaliland organizations boycotted signing the Hargeisa Consensus Declaration during the last session of the symposium on Wednesday.
NOVIB's Somaliland counterparts that were involved in launching the symposium cannot escape blame for not sensitizing the organizing Dutch NGO as well as stakeholders from Somalia with the prevalent attitudes, values and aspirations in Somaliland. The reservations voiced by representatives of most of Somaliland's civil society organizations against the final declaration should be understood within this context.
Despite this setback, a lot of good work was done in the symposium in terms of exchanging experience and networking. To some extent, the people and government of Somaliland should feel proud for hosting two big regional events. But if international organizations want to sponsor gatherings of this type in the future, they should bear in mind that Somaliland need not be confused with Somalia. At least for the people of this country, these two places are not the same and can't be the same. It is also essential not to engage consultants who are politically biased against Somaliland in the preparation of reports on the state of affairs in Somaliland. And above everything else, Somaliland's local NGOs and government agencies must be involved from the beginning in any studies or reports to be made on Somaliland issues. Before and during engagement in any local or regional endeavors, it is necessary that Somaliland's public is kept informed about what is going.
Finally, international organizations should avoid thinking on behalf of Somaliland's people and government; the agenda of every collaboration must be laid down and legitimacy of representation established in a transparent manner; and Somaliland's government should show a more pro-active involvement in leading and coordinating such efforts in the future, for Somalia may not have a central government but Somaliland does have one.
Somaliland Times , ISSUE 58 March 1, 2003
Empowering Should be Reciprocal
We believe that the decision to hold this unprecedented large gathering for Somalia and Somaliland civil society organizations in Hargeisa, has not come by choice, but rather by default: because no other place in the territories of former Somalia was felt safe enough to host this grand meeting, the meeting was held in Somaliland. We mention this fact not to offend our brothers and sisters from Somalia who are here today to participate in the symposium. Neither is this simple fact stated here out of xenophobia. No, it is for the sake of raising a very important issue that those of you who come from Somalia need to be aware of. It is an issue of vital importance for Somaliland's society as a whole, and to a great extent, for the future of civil society in Somalia, as well. It is the issue of peace and future relations between the civil societies of Somaliland and Somalia.
But first we feel obliged to let you know that the single most vital determining factor for the realization and consolidation of peace here has been the proclamation of this country as the independent Republic of Somaliland. In other words, the task of preserving and promoting Somaliland, as an independent entity, has been the pole around which people came together to make peace and reconciliation a reality in this country.
Following the genocides and wide-scale atrocities committed against the people of Somaliland by the former unitary state of Somalia, Somalilanders resolved on May 18, 1991 that the only way for avoiding similar tragedies happening to them again, was to reinstate the independence that Somaliland achieved on June 26, 1960. The existence of Somaliland as a fully independent entity is therefore still seen and will be seen for a long time to come if not forever, as an indispensable safeguard for the protection of the physical security and well being of Somaliland's citizens.
It is amidst this immense sense of solidarity among the people for the promotion of Somaliland's cause that social organizations flourished and found power. And any external attempts to remove this factor from the Somaliland equation would have catastrophic consequences for the cause of peace, not only in Somaliland and the region, but would also lead to the re-emergence of the long suppressed militaristic tendencies within Somaliland's society at great peril to its currently vibrant civil society.
Brothers and sisters from Somalia
We know that, as civil society organizations, you are operating under very difficult conditions. We know that you are being marginalized and constantly harassed by those who resort to violence as a means and an end by itself, to perpetuate their self-interests. We also know that that to survive and develop you need help. However, we honestly believe that assistance from the international community alone, cannot guarantee your survival, let alone nurturing you as civil society organizations now or in the future. Neither could it lead to your empowerment as civil society activists.
We believe that you can find more crucially important support for your efforts in the Republic of Somaliland itself, particularly among its civil society groups, provided you respond positively to the aspirations of Somaliland's civil society. To put it in clearer terms, Somaliland's civil society is in a position to assist in empowering the civil society in Somalia if the latter would agree to reciprocate by accepting the new political reality that exists here - Independent and Sovereign Somaliland. Recalling the instrumental role that the SNM played in the past in the liberation of your country from the former dictatorial military regime, there is no other reason -except your lack of acceptance and recognition of our people's right to self-determination - that can stop Somaliland from assisting the people of Somalia establish themselves in power in the same way as people have done here. The choice in yours.
Somaliland Times , ISSUE 58 March 1, 2003
The Blind Leading the Blind
Twelve years and some have passed since Somaliland withdrew from the Union. And as friends and foes alike say no one has recognized yet. The ill effects of two decades of neglect, a decade of under siege and bombardment and a decade of non-recognition have taken its toll. The fact that Somaliland authorities pose the question to every Dick and Harry that stops-by clearly reflects that desperation. Naturally, one would expect the actions of the government towards that quest would match the level of desperation and anxiety. But the government's record for the recognition quest is perfunctory, unfocused and lacks a strategy. To make matters worse, the appointment of Dr. Dixood as a special envoy (recognition czar) might derail the quest rather than enhance it. This brief perspective would attempt to point-out, with minimum illustrations, that Somaliland's foreign policy is mediocre, the prospects and ill effects of Dr. Dixood's appointment and finally it would provide a brief suggestion of how to proceed on the recognition quest.
Somaliland has neglected the recognition quest. The message it wants to communicate to the World community is absent when and where it counts most. For example, at the most recent conference of the African heads of States (AU) held in Addis Ababa, Somaliland was absent. Conferences of that level where world leaders, other dignitaries and journalists congregate at the same time are rare and present a golden opportunity to meet as many as time allows. Political action groups, activists, environmentalists and many other interest groups such as associations and societies that want to advance their causes, beliefs and ideals view such conferences as a chance to educate, as chance to influence and/or at minimum as a chance to neutralize the critics. Somaliland should have similarly taken her cause to the streets, alleys, inside the Sheratons and the Hiltons, wherever it finds her target. The Transitional National Government (TNG), Abdulqaasim and company were present in full force and they have made some big scores. Scores made within days but might take years to undo. Many other occasions held in East Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, the Americas have slipped without notice. It is troubling that Somaliland has, once again, missed a golden opportunity. One keeps saying, may be, next time. But, time isn't on the side of Somaliland.
Besides, it is common knowledge that the issues that concern Somaliland and Somalia for that matter are formulized, debated and adopted for blanket application in some epicenters like Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Brussels and to a lesser extend Washington, New York and Egypt. The European Union is the largest donor to Somaliland and yet, Somaliland doesn't have a representative in Belgium. Ethiopia is important to Somaliland economically and politically, yet the envoys Somaliland assigned to the country lack any political acumen and diplomatic experience. No wonder relations are deteriorating. New York and Cairo aren't even factored into the equation. The only relatively shinning spots are Nairobi and Washington. In Washington, the highly qualified, articulate Washingtonian, Saa'd Sheikh Isman Nur is making the rounds but languishing without the Mighty Dollar - no budget; In Kenya Xusseen Cali Ducaleh (Cawil), a seasoned diplomat has been re-activated few months ago. Already, Cawil has made a difference but why did it take so long? If Somaliland continues to be absent where and when it counts most and if Somaliland continues to under-finance the recognition quest, the misery of non-recognition would prolong.
There is another development that might blot out the gains and the goodwill that Somaliland has earned so far towards the recognition quest. According to a press release from the office of the Presidency, President Rayaale appointed Dr. Omer Dixood as a special envoy to secure recognition for Somaliland from the International Community. It is fairly common practice to appoint a special envoy for the resolution of a nagging problem such as the reconciliation of the Somalia warring factions. However, the reason an envoy is selected over others is primarily for the in-depth knowledge, experience, power or talent that particular envoy has for the task he/she is expected to under-take.
But in this case, the wrong expert is appointed and for the wrong reasons. In light of the poverty and the anticipated prosperity and economic development, rightly or wrongly, associated with the recognition, it is expected of Somaliland to marshal the energy, the resources and the experts to achieve recognition within the shortest possible time. Undoubtedly, Dr. Dixood is an able person who has accomplished a lot with a handicap and for that he should be admired. But Dr. Dixood is neither a political scientist nor is he an expert in international law. Moreover, he is no Michael Mariano, the late beloved diplomat, and he has no background in public relations. Interestingly, the press release mentioned that Dr. Dixood has resided in Europe for about 20 years. If this meant to be the basis of his selection, he is the right person (no argument there); I couldn't have come up with a better one myself either.
Aside from the obvious lack of credentials, Dr. Dixood's response to a question posed by Jamhuuriya uncovered his naivet, on the task ahead. It went like this: "Dixood oo wargeyska Jamhuuriya weeydiiyay sida uu u arko in uga bixi karo hawshan loo igmaday, waxa uu sheegay in ay fududahay. Isaga oo hadal kiisi sii wata waxa uu sheegay hadii S/L sii waado nabadgelyad jirtaa maanta waxa aan hubaa in aggonsigu daaqda saaranyahay"
Let us say "aamiin" to Dr. Dixood's prophecy. But Dr. Dixood's prophecy is simplistic and no one is expecting that recognition would be handed over on a silver platter. At the out set, I must tell you that like Dr. Dixood, I have no credentials on this subject either but from what I understand diplomacy is complex; it requires training in geopolitics, it has protocols to follow and certain etiquette to obey. It is delicate and fragile and those who don't walk and talk like one are ostracized.
Considering Dr. Dixood's ill preparedness, I am afraid that this appointment would derail the prospects of recognition. Based on an interview Dr. Dixood gave to Jamhuuriya (London) on February 18, 2003, Dr. Dixood would lead 100 Somalilanders into the British Parliament on February 28 to present to the House of Parliament, in six hours time, Somaliland's decision to withdraw from the union and to appeal recognition.
In explaining what would be the substance of his presentation, Dr. Dixood stated, "Waxaanu ku odhanayna maadaama Somaliland ka mid ahayd maxmiyadihii ay gumaysan jirtay Boqortooyada Ingriisku, isla markaana ay dad badan oo reer Somaliland ahi oo ka mid ah u dagaalamay Ingriiska dagaal-weynihii labaad ee Adunka ay ku dhinteen. . Sida darted, haddii dawladda Ingriisku aanay na siinayn dadkii.ku dhintay mag-dhawgoodii in aanu xaq ugu leenahay inay noo soo dedejiso ictraafka dawladnimo" Dr. Dixood continued, "Waxa kale oo aanu u sheegaynaa inay Soamliland ahayd dalkii madaxbannaanidiisa ka qaatay ingriiska 1960kii, Boqorada Ingriiskuna ay u Saxeexday madaxbannanidiisa. .Ingriiskuna uu ogyahay annaga oo ah dawlad madaxbannaan inaanu ku biirnay midowgii Somalia. "
Six hours is a lot of time. But the substance Dr. Dixood is planning to present is pathetic, litigious and insulting the intelligence of both the parliamentarians and that of Somalilanders. Lecturing at the British Parliament that Somaliland used to be a British Protectorate; that Her Majesty signed Somaliland's independence; that United Kingdom affirms that the union of Somaliland and Somalia formed Somali Republic, so on and so forth is a waste of a golden opportunity but more importantly it reflects how ill-prepared and ill-equipped Dr. Dixood is to under-take the issue at hand. It, also, unequivocally depicts the caliber of those who assigned him for the recognition issue, the single most important issue Somaliland wants to achieve. Somaliland could do a lot better.
If it is true that Somaliland is given an opportunity to present her case to the British Parliament as Dr. Dixood is claiming, Somaliland should reconsider the timing in order to prepare the presentation. It appears that this is a rare opportunity that shouldn't be tackled lightly. The likelihood that such an opportunity would present itself again is very slim and the chances that Dr. Dixood would mess it up are great. Assuming it is true, I would advise the Somaliland administration to request this opportunity be postponed for another six months or one year. In the meantime, Somaliland would hire experts in international law, public relations and marketing firms to prepare and prosecute the case of Somaliland in a professional, legalistic and comprehensive manner that matches the significance Somaliland attaches to this case. Researching, preparing, packaging and prosecuting the case of Somaliland would take at least six months, if not years. This service could cost Somaliland roughly between three hundred thousand United States Dollars to half-million. It seems too high on Somaliland coffers but if recognition was on auction, how much Somaliland would be willing to bid? At any rate, I hope that Dr. Dixood wouldn't present the recognition case to the British Parliament. That would hurt and not help Somaliland.
But contrary to what Dr. Dixood has stated in Jamhuuriya interview, the opportunity given to Dr. Dixood isn't that significant after all. It seems that Dr. Dixood has dramatized the event but the reality is closer to revelations reported elsewhere. Based on a report posted on HadhWanaag Website on February 17, 2003, Dr. Dixood is scheduled to meet with some parliamentarians, who represent constituencies with fair number of ethnically Somaliland electorate, to raise two issues: recognition and reparations for Somaliland soldiers who were killed the 2nd world war. This approach could explode like a minefield. The historical colonial relationship between Somaliland and the British is undeniable and how Somalilanders gallantly fought side by side with the British is inscribed in the annals of world records. As descendants whose ancestors helped the British Empire in time of need, it is appropriate for Somaliland to remind the British of Somaliland's sacrifices and loyalty but it is inappropriate to alienate and raise the issue of reparations concurrently. Broaching a litigious almost century old world war reparations that was never raised for three decades by the Somali government is ill advised. Raising it at this juncture, while Somaliland is attempting to appeal to Her Majesty for another more pressing issue would only antagonize Her Majesty and strain the slowly warming-up relationship. Mentioning the reparations with the same breath as the recognition in the British Parliament would definitely give the wrong signal. And that may set Somaliland and the British on a collusion course. Somaliland has to be mindful of the magnitude of the lethal minefield that the inexperienced and unsteady hands of Dr. Dixood could trigger.
Making an appointment with a British parliamentarian is also a fairly common practice, which doesn't require any skill other than being a member of his/her constituency. For the same token elected officials make an effort to meet their constituency and listen their concerns anytime anywhere. It is fine if that is what Dr. Dixood is doing. But it is sad if that is all Dr. Dixood could deliver as special envoy. Where is the beef? The individual effort, albeit laudable, is less effective than the community and organizational effort, which the Somaliland communities and organizations all over the globe are under-taking. The historical relationship that Dr. Dixood wants to confront with the British Parliamentarians isn't something he uncovered. The evidence is historic and plenty but the issue is how to package and present it to the right audience at the right time. Some who, among others, have succeeded in this endeavor and hence indirectly advanced the cause without fanfare are the Cardiff Somaliland Community, the Peace Institute, the Institute of Practical Research and Training, the Somaliland Forum and Edna Adan Ismail.
On February 13, 2003, the Somaliland Community in Cardiff has hosted a conference in which the under-secretary of development, Ms. Sally Keeble was the guest speaker. Few months earlier, the same community invited the Somaliland Deputy Speaker of the House, Abdulqadir Haji Ismail (Jirde). The Cardiff Community as a whole and in particular Cabdi Caagli Axmed Daad, historian and author, has displayed an array of documents and other memorable mementos depicting the long relationship between the British and the people of Somaliland at a conference held in honor of Cabdulqaadir Jirde and his counter part at the Wales parliament. The collaborative effort from the Community and the manner the Deputy Speaker effectively represented Somaliland with grace has resonated with the people of Somaliland both at home and at abroad. Another event that comes to mind is the one the Director of the Institute of Practical Research and Training (IPRT), Dr. Ahmed Hussein Essa has hosted few months ago on Capital Hill, where prominent diplomats and congressional members were the guest speakers. The work of Dr. Husseen Bulhan and the Peace Institute, particularly the Tokyo Workshop has elevated Somaliland to a higher level. Not to mention the indefatigable effort of Somaliland Forum and who could forget how Edna Adan (the jewel of Somaliland) had charmed South Africa and how the Press noted her eloquence and elegance. The goodwill these efforts generate stay in the minds of the people for a long time. But that isn't enough. This is a war and should be fought like one, with bunkers; command and control center manned by the best and brightest Generals, with enough resources and ammunition to last till Mandeeq is recognized. Anything less is a mediocre.
The fear is Dr. Dixood's approach would erode the goodwill and set the clock back, many years back. Indeed, this appointment is unorthodox. The piece of paper identifying the bearer as special envoy resembles more of a pipe fitter's testimonial than a diplomat's credential. The fact that the infrastructure such as an office, the budget and the like that is necessary to facilitate, coordinate and launch this mission were not addressed, not even in fine print, tells me that it is just another campaign ploy like the oil explorations. Additionally, the methodology employed in this assignment is outside the diplomatic channels. Government to government communication is channeled via the respective foreign offices. The fact that Somaliland isn't recognized doesn't alter this channel. It is granted that Dr. Dixood's official assignment entails visiting a lot of foreign offices and meeting a lot of dignitaries. Pulling a crumpled testimonial-like piece of paper out of his pocket to identify himself, whenever he meets dignitaries, is belittling and demeaning the important task he is appointed to resolve. Also, the appointment of Dr. Dixood didn't disclose the financial aspect of this task. Is Dr. Dixood volunteering his time? Is he paying out-of pocket-expenses from his resources? Or is the government footing the bill? The public wants to know.
There is another problem with this appointment; it has raised more questions than answers. Somaliland has already official representatives that deal with the recognition issue and other mutual issues of interest in most of the developed countries. For example, there is Osman Ahmed Hassan, a seasoned diplomat, representing Somaliland in England where Dr. Dixood is also currently residing. Would Hassan continue to deal with the British foreign office or would he hand over the correspondence and the records to Dixood? Does this mean Hassan is released from his duty by default? Would Dixood address other issues of mutual interest like the repatriation of refugees, one wonders? Additionally, this appointment doesn't identify the countries Dixood would be liaisoning. On the face of it, it appears that Dr.Dixood is an ambassador at large, was this intentional? No matter how unqualified Dr. Dixood is, if this appointment has stated that Dr. Dixood would represent the interest of Somaliland in such a country, it would have been more palatable.
Obviously, this isn't the proper way to handle this important issue. The purpose of this appointment is a part of a campaigning tactic to appeal to certain constituency and has nothing to do with the larger national issue (recognition), which it purports to address. As stated above, this appointment was for the wrong reasons. How insincere. Missteps like this could erode the amount of hard-won goodwill that Somaliland is trying to build onto. But again all isn't lost. The testimonial-like piece of paper might serve Dixood for another purpose; it is a nice piece of souvenir. He could frame it and hang it on the wall of his office or residence.
A better way to approach the recognition quest is to appoint a permanent focal group. In order to achieve timely results, the quest for recognition should be well planned, proactive, focused, systematic and pursued relentlessly at the following fronts: a) Somaliland b) Somalia and the front-line states c) The African Union and the Security Council and d) The worldwide community at large. The reasons of focusing the above fronts and the how-to are beyond the scope of this perspective. Anyway, the road map to the realization of that quest should be reviewed, revised and assessed regularly to reflect the accomplishments and to incorporate changes and new directives. The input should be solicited from seasoned diplomats, politicians and other community leaders but the stewardship and the execution of that plan should be trusted in the hands of respected diplomats and technocrats such as Abdirahiim Cabby Farrax, Omar Carte Qaalib, Xuseen Cali Ducaleh (Cawil), Cusman Axmed Xassan, Edna Adan Ismail and others of the same caliber in concert with the President and the Foreign Office. Rather than reactively jerking the knee whenever Somaliland is badly battered and assaulted by the critics, rather than employing the services of an amateur, Somaliland should put a systematic program in place to monitor, deter and minimize the effects of incoming storms and direct the operations like a war. Such a panel should be empowered with a generous budget, given terms of reference and burdened with a timetable. Furthermore, the panel should package the historical claim to sovereignty, document sufficiently the repression and the ethnic cleansing exacted on the people of Somaliland. This could be done with the help of lawyers that specialize in international law, public relations and marketing firms. Such experts could capitalize on the peace, stability, the democracy and the rule of law Somaliland have adopted and successfully sustained in the midst of turbulence. Anything less would be hodgepodge.
In case, Dr. Dixood insists to go ahead with his substandard presentation, cited below is the text of Somaliland Independence proclamation: On June 23, 1960, The Queen by a Royal Proclamation terminating Her Majesty's protection over Somaliland Protectorate proclaimed and declared that "as from the beginning of the appointed day (June 26, 1960), our protection over the territories known as the Somaliland Protectorate shall cease, and all territories and agreements in force immediately before the appointed day between Us or our government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and any of the tribes of the said territories, all our obligations existing immediately before that day towards the said territories and all functions, powers, rights, authority or jurisdiction exercisable by Us immediately before that day in or in relation to the said territories by treaty, grant, usage, sufferance or otherwise, shall lapse" Evoking the exact words might be more powerful than stating Her Majesty signed our independence; just another substandard thought! By the way, in case you aren't aware of, there are other members of the diaspora sporting with testimonial-like pieces of paper bearing not the signature of a minister but that of the President. One of those, states that so and so (name with-held), the bearer of this letter is appointed to raise funds in North America for the election in the name of Somaliland; I wonder if a copy of that letter has been provided to the election commission. Is this another scheme to raise funds for a political party? Keep guessing.
Frankly, Ambassador David Shinn has said it and Dr. Qaanim Al-Najaar of the United Nations, Human Rights has said it; recognition wouldn't be handed over by silver platter. Somaliland should try harder. Neither a panel nor an individual effort could guarantee anything but a well-planned systematic approach manned by seasoned diplomats is more promising than using the services of an amateur. One last thing, Dr. Dixood is undoubtedly an expert, but in a different field. Legend has it that Dixood knows more about churches, Sunday sermons, and ecumenical than diplomacy. If legend has it right, he would have served Somaliland better at the Vatican. Thanks to "dhanxeer" who reminded us that this appointment sounds like the blind leading the blind. One more misstep and the minefield wouldn't only dampen but paralyze the prospects of recognition to a bedridden condition. Act now.
BBC Monitoring Reports, February 27, 2003/Source: Somaliland Net web site in Somali 27 Feb 03 /BBC Monitoring
SOMALILAND: KULMIYE PARTY NOMINATES CANDIDATES FOR POLLS
Africa News, February 21, 2003/BYLINE: Addis Tribune
Somalia; Somaliland Presidential Election Chronicles Part 1
A Primer on an Embryonic Democracy
Somaliland gained its independence from the British Empire in late June of 1960 and lost it 4 days later, in a fit of postcolonial delirium, by merging with its southern neighbor to form the Republic of Somalia on July 1st of the same year. The union was driven by a chauvinistic ideology of "Greater Somalia", a scheme of "freeing and uniting" all Somali-speaking people in the Horn of Africa. The Somali Republic, formulated on this basis, disintegrated and failed - the first modern state to simply disappear and vanish. The Somali Republic no longer exists as a state. Somaliland reclaimed its independence in May 1991. Since then it has been struggling to establish its own statehood on the basis of a home-grown Africanized Democracy. Over the last 9 years it has succeeded to establish peace, reconciliation and law and order. On December 15th, 2002, municipal elections were held in a manner that neutral observers described as predominantly peaceful, free and fair. Hotly contested presidential elections are currently under way. And herein starts the real test and accompanying fireworks.
An electoral process is a high-stakes competition that is divisive even in the best of circumstances. The hyperactive free press of Somaliland is in its infancy and innocently oblivious to the massive power it wields and the potential for grave consequences of inaccurate coverage. The main presidential candidates are already accomplished practitioners of election-speak and some have shown a precocious mastery of the art of demagoguery to a degree that is worthy of Lee Atwater and the Willie Horton ads. All these considered in the context of a traditionally fractured society, that has a taste for the anarchic and a lack of familiarity with the business of the individual as a citizen, poses the risk of transforming an election into a free-for-all chaos that could set the whole region ablaze.
The other more optimistic possibility is that democracy may, just may, take root against the odds. The open free press may provide a vent for accumulated social tension and the young nation, populated as it is by pastoral democrats, may find a home and alternative to anarchy in the messy process of democracy. As a consequence the Somaliland State may gain legitimacy among its population, an achievement that is infinitely more basic and more essential than any recognition in the international arena.
Either way the stakes are very high. This real life drama will have grave consequences for Somaliland, the cost of which will be measured in the lives of hundreds of thousands of its citizenry-lives that will be either lost to anarchy or saved by a new era of home grown African Renaissance. This latter possibility will constitute a much-needed fresh breath for the whole region that could strength the gains recently won by the Kenyans in their peaceful transformation through the ballot-box. As I said, either way the stakes are high.
The Political Forces in Contention
There are three political parties competing in the presidential elections.
The late President Egal founded UDUB, the governing party. Egal was a beloved figure in Somaliland. He represented the old school of African politicians; the likes of Haile-Selassie, Jomo Kenyatta and Julius Nyrere. He created UDUB on the model of the one party state, for the express purpose of remaining the chief and then he died unexpectedly. The party was orphaned and afflicted with an identity crisis. Many wrote it off altogether as a potent political force. UDUB was on a death watch.
Egal's Vice President and Deputy party boss, the man who inherited the presidency of Somaliland, Dahir Riyaale Kahin, resuscitated UDUB and led it to a stunning, unexpected victory in the municipal elections of December 15/2002.
President, Riyaale who attained the presidency in a peaceful, legal manner after the death of Egal, is known to be a man of few. He introduced the practical language of the rule of law, and the practice of democracy and accountability to a society that was thirsty for them all. He managed the transition of power flawlessly on a solid basis of national consensus. He actively pursued a course of free elections based on the principle of one-man-one vote in a multiparty state, a course of action that may result in the loss of his power. Because of these actions that speak louder than his, the people of Somaliland rewarded him with a resounding political victory. UDUB became a force to reckon with, and Riyaale the man to beat in Somaliland's presidential elections.
The second party, KULIMIYE, is the party of the establishment that is not in power as yet. It is close though, very close, waiting in the wings, biding its time. KULMIYE was born in opposition not even a year ago, and it prospered in that environment reaching a position of national prominence in record time. The founder and leader of KULMIYE, Ahmed M. Mahamoud Silanyo, is a respected statesman/guerilla leader/ bureaucrat/economist/diplomat, in short a highly educated man with an intimidating CV. Most relevant to his ambitions for the presidency is that he was Chairman of SNM in the crucial years of its struggle against Siyad Barre (1984-1990). Since then he was a prominent peacemaker who always answered the call of his nation in its hour of need. His political capital among the populace emanates from this history.
During the campaign for municipal elections Silanyo was more of an educator to his people teaching the elements of constructive opposition, of demanding change while defending the system, of giving credit when it is due and of always being on the side of the state when national interest dictated it. Somalilanders felt blessed to have him as an opposition leader at a time when their young state needed the kind of nurture and love that only an enlightened opposition leader can offer. In the Municipal elections KULMIYE was rewarded for this performance by massive gains across the country that transcended tribal affiliation.
The third party, UCID, is a new phenomenon in Somaliland's political arena. It is a party that is based on modern thoughts of freedom and responsibility, on equality of citizens under the law and the necessity of good governance. At its most basic nature the party stands for uncompromising Somaliland Nationalism. Because of the clarity of its position and the persistence of its founder it has forced both UDUB and KULMIYE to take unequivocal positions on the question.
UCID was conceived and born in the diaspora in the rarified environment of a university setting or so it is seems. Faysal Ali Warabe, the founder of UCID is a civil engineer by trade and a politician by choice. He is a man whom opponents of the independence of Somaliland love to hate. What is most amazing about UCID is that it was able to establish itself on the Somali political map so effectively. Win or lose, this party has already succeeded in setting the national agenda. Its ideas on governance, accountability, independence and political honesty are already the measuring rod against which other parties are evaluated.
A Devastating Cultural Challenge
BUT the determined battles of men and women for power, with parties forming and coalitions being built, are nothing but mirages. Just below the surface, just under the individual differences, behind the ambitious men vying for power, behind the rhetoric of resumes, convictions, beliefs and promises, behind all of these, gigantic social forces are fighting for dominance in the determination of the destiny of the Somalilander.
History itself is imposing a fatal choice on this ill-prepared society. On the table now are the fundamental options of choosing nationhood and surviving or choosing tribal structure and becoming extinct like all other tribal societies around the world. And there is nothing theoretical about this demand for making a choice. It is urgent. It demands attention now. It cannot be delayed, postponed or ignored. Each issue that is raised, every position that is taken, every expression of support or opposition to a candidate or another, indeed the very essence of the presidential election, represents nothing less than a direct confrontation between clan and state in a merciless battle where only one will be left standing at the end of the day.
The survival of the Somaliland State in its fatal confrontation with the clearly disorganizing and destructive clan principle will depend upon the acceptance of the absurd position of adopting two dialectically opposed principles at the same time.
* Absolute acceptance of the clan system
* Absolute rejection of the clan system.
Why do I consider this issue as a cultural shock, why do I pose the absurdity of marrying the opposites above? For these answers and much more follow the subsequent articles under the title of "Somaliland Presidential Election Chronicles".
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 57 February 22, 2003
Somalia and Survival in the Shadow Of the Global Economy
The Somalis have no indigenous centralized government. .the key to Somali politics lies in kinship. Political status is thus maintained by feud and war, and self-help - the resort of groups to the test of superior military power - is the ultimate arbiter in political relations. - I.M. Lewis The fact of the situation in Somaliland is that they have elected a government in the most democratic way possible, within the constraints of public finance; they have started the process of demobilization and disarmament; they have restructured customs services in the port of Berbera and introduced an audit system. None of this effort could be attributed to a single United Nations initiative. - J. Drysdale
Somalia was once considered one of Africa" s few real nation-states, based upon a shared Somali language and single ethnic culture. The five points of the star on its flag were meant as a call to" lost" Somalis in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti left out in 1960 when Independence led to the union of British Somaliland and the UN trust territory under Italian administration, a cause for which Siyyad Barre" s regime (1969-91) attacked Ethiopia in 1977-78. Yet in 1991 Somalia" s capital, Mogadishu, hosted forty distinct, mostly clan-based armed groups. Shortly before, the dying regime killed 50,000 fellow Somalis in a failed attempt to repress rebellion in the north. As of 2002, the closest thing to a central government in Mogadishu was a precarious administration that controlled a small area of the city, a result of protracted negotiations in neighboring Djibouti.
In Hargeisa in old Somalia" s north out came a new flag and slogans to celebrate Somaliland" s declaration of independence on 18 May 1991. Heads of clans transformed themselves into a national assembly. Even though no other government extended it formal recognition, its leaders issued currency, kept order with a new police force, and collected revenues to provide citizens with basic public services. In 1999 the president of Somaliland, Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal, upbraided Mogadishu politicians and warlords for their servility to clan interests and seemingly endless fighting. This was the same man who had been a Somali government official, then head of his own clan militia. Neighboring Puntland created a central administration by 1998, but one more a development organization than a formal government. Puntland authorities pioneer a new hybrid organization that contracts out to private organizations, including indigenous ones, essential tasks such as security that are conventionally assigned to states.
Leaders in Somaliland and Puntland contend with international laws and norms that hinder the creation of new polities. The United Nation" s 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (Resolution 1514) declared that self-determination was legitimate only within the context of ex-colonial boundaries, and that historical or new communities outside this framework did not qualify as authentic candidates. Resolution 1514 declared that" any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations," a sentiment reinforced in consistent Organization of African Unity condemnations of separatist movements over the last four decades. Thus no state recognizes Somaliland or Puntland sovereignty. Furthermore, many scholars cite internal factors such as foreign aid, clandestine rackets, and diaspora remittances that prevent groups from repeating the Western experience of state formation. This gives few incentives to strongmen to bother to negotiate with local people to construct the bonds of reciprocity and control over power that characterized state building in earlier times in Europe. Yet this is what Somaliland and Puntland leaders appear to have done, even as their southern colleagues conformed to expectations.
What explains these radically different responses of similar societies to state marginality and state collapse? Why do they create (or fail to create) such different new polities and identities amidst greater global economic integration that diasporas and clandestine trades bring even to collapsed states? Are Somaliland" s rulers unreconstructed clan politicians, their power undermined by the demise of a radically marginalized Somalia, abandoned by global economic and strategic interests, leaving them to preside over isolated, contentious clan-based enclaves? Or did Somalia" s collapse create in the north a reordered authority that accepts the social power of clan-based organizations, but also finds new, sustainable ways to configure internal politics and relations with a world economy? How do these people negotiate diplomatic norms that recognize only sovereign states and communities defined by clearly delimited boundaries?
I show how Somaliland society, and to a lesser extent, Puntland society reconstructed itself around three axes. The first involves a shift toward greater reliance on solidarity groups such as clans, sub-clans and lineage groups that claim people" s loyalties and resources. This organizing force in Somali society exists in interaction with other social factors. As contrasting statements at the beginning of this work show, it can appear to be an immutable boundary of conflict, but in fact is fluid and within certain limits is socially reconstructed to respond to political and economic exigencies of collapsing central state authority.
A second axis incorporates clandestine and informal economic channels in conflict. It is not true that collapsing state control automatically empowers self-interested predators who grab valuable economic resources. Somalia" s recent experience shows that not all who exercise coercion do so to maximize their personal economic gains. This still leaves unexplained why some pursue short-term personal economic interests and respond to global economic opportunities at the expense of community order, while others in similar circumstances do not, or at least not exclusively. Some who turn their backs on immediate economic gains survive and successfully encourage others to cooperate with them, even amidst predatory rivals. In fact, some Somali war leaders forego fairly easy predation, while others use violence even where gains are marginal. A key variable explaining this difference lies in the extent to which local notables were able to join a presidential clique and migrate into" official" clandestine markets in the 1970s and 1980s to manipulate state policies and grab state assets for personal benefit. Meanwhile, those excluded from corridors of power, especially in the north, had to take refuge in their own clandestine markets in defiance of presidential power. Highlighting differences in this aspect of state collapse is integral to identifying the social control of resources, and thus coercion after the disintegration of central authority in 1991. By extension, the same elements of social control underlie the construction and eventual character of political communities that succeed the collapsed state.
Changes in global economic norms and practices since the 1970s constitute a third axis. Some of these changes reinforce connections between state collapse, greater marginality and seemingly endless conflict. Other changes give some social networks chances to reconfigure economic ties to the rest of the world to their advantage. To the extent that northern elites can fake adherence to global norms, or convince outsiders that clan and community business networks ought to be treated as a state, or claim that they are something that they really are not (such as a development organization or a business enterprise), they acquire resources and political tools to build a new, post collapsed identity and political community. This" beyond state collapse" possibility suggests that the contemporary world economy and state system tolerate greater heterogeneity in strategies of engagement from the periphery than normally supposed. This tolerance is unintended. It arises out of the capacity of local leaders to represent their organizations as what outsiders may wish to see, to recruit external assistance for covert purposes, and to utilize norms and practices in ways other than what those who created and use them intended, much as Somalia" s president did when he destroyed his state. Where this process occurs, it is central to understanding how globalization affects the construction of identity and the formation of political authority on the margins of world economic and diplomatic transactions.
I argue that the nature of state collapse in the 1970s and 1980s, especially the distribution of social control over violence and markets, unintentionally left Somaliland leaders with more social raw material to reconstruct a single polity after 1991-to" self-determine" -compared to southern counterparts. Northerners had some flexibility to experiment, to tie nominally private businesses to the maintenance of central authority and order, and exploit norms in international commercial and diplomatic practice created for other purposes. Lessons of Somaliland apply wherever communally based solidarities (as in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and southern Nigeria) connect people to global economic networks in a context of weak or absent states. Subsequent political arrangements in Somaliland differ significantly from state-building models that privilege clear distinctions between public and private spheres of activity and centralized bureaucratic hierarchies. Somaliland authorities preside over a hybrid organization-not exactly a state in a conventional sense-but state-like in the more basic sense of preserving order, as a pole around which citizens establish a shared identity, and able to manage the community" s conduct of relations with outsiders, all integral elements of self-determination.
Political and institutional variation among Somalis occurs despite the fact that people in Somaliland and Puntland shared with the rest of Somalis similar economic constraints and historical experiences of state rule. All Somalis lived under the cold war era nationalist governance. All experienced its irredentist project in the 1970s. Especially important, all fell victim to the dramatic weakening of state institutions and faced fear, uncertainties and predations of political entrepreneurs attending the collapse of the state during the 1980s. All regions face risk factors for fragmentation such as exploitable grievances and intermingling of communal settlements, with high potentials to create opportunities for political entrepreneurs. In fact, northern Somalia, declaring itself the Republic of Somaliland, historically has been more marginal to world strategic and formal commercial concerns than the south and experienced greater violence in the late 1980s. Distant from the capital, it was short-changed in earlier efforts to build state institutions, a situation rooted in a British colonial policy emphasizing minimal administrative intervention. It is shown below that colonial administration had a disruptive impact upon local social organization. Taken together, these factors make the emergence of an autonomous Somaliland capable of defining a political community and organizing its relations with the rest of the world even more baffling.
Instrumentalist and rational choice approaches have a hard time explaining this outcome with reference to conventional calculations of group fears and individual gain. Somaliland especially suggests other instances of non-occurrence or early cessation of war in other places. While a rational choice model for post state collapse violence and persistent conflict may explain the violent warfare and the collapse of states in Georgia" s Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it fails to account for the relative absence of violence in places like Georgia" s Ajaria and Abazhidze regions. Likewise, Dagestan and Ingushetia attract little attention for their absence of wars. Yet they are among the most ethnically diverse polities of their size, sharing borders with war-torn Chechnya, and are targets of numerous provocations of ethnic entrepreneurs eager to create security dilemmas among these communities. Meanwhile, Chechen neighbors fight Russians, and when not facing invaders, they fight each other.
One could attribute good sense and foresight to political actors, ex post. Doing so glosses over highly unpredictable, violent and threatening environments and erratic decision making processes that characterize even those cases that avoid massive conflict and communal competition. It downplays the salience of variables such as ethnically defined units that served as the basis of Soviet administration and that should have heightened ethnic tensions during periods of uncertainty, much as the first quote at the front of this work attributes continuing Somali conflicts to pervasive clan affiliation in politics there. As throughout the Somali space, entrepreneurs in all these cases exploit clandestine commercial networks in niche sectors of regional economies and play a major role in controlling external financial resources to these societies. People throughout the margins of the world economy, whether they fight or peaceably reorganize their communities in some different fashion, contend with the breakdown of old economies, declining subsidies from former colonial powers or superpower patrons, and fighting nearby that exposes them to the risk of contagion of disorder and fear. Furthermore, Somaliland" s diaspora represents a larger percentage of total population and contributes more to societal income than any other major region of the Somali space. According to Collier this manner of economic and social externalization should lead to a greater likelihood of conflict, when in fact it is compatible with the opposite.
What these cases, and Somaliland and Puntland in detail here shows is that state collapse and shifts in the global environment can be compatible with the formation of orderly multi-communal polities that are able to manage their connections with the global economy, even as they are extremely marginal to it. While it is not a formula for organizing polities that will have great weight in the economic or political councils of global society, these conditions are compatible with the more modest claim that the destruction of states amidst economic globalization need not spell the end to local political order and peaceful economic engagement. .
Source: Somaliland Times Issue 57 February 22, 2003
Censorship Introduced at Government Owned Media
Already a number of program producers and broadcasters working for Radio Hargeisa have been strongly reprimanded by their supervisors after they were accused of releasing commentaries and songs that allegedly carried anti-government messages of political nature, sources within the Ministry of Information said. The restrictions were believed to have been imposed by the Somaliland Minister of Information, Abdillahi Mohamed Duale.
To demonstrate how serious he was, Mr. Duale has even reportedly ordered deletion of all the speeches given by figures from the opposition at a rally held Thursday for the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 20th February Somaliland school children uprising against the former military regime of Siyad Barre. In one of these speeches, the well-known SNM a veteran Mohamed Kahin accused both Radio Hargeisa and Maandeeq of following a policy of deliberate distortion when running stories on the history of the liberation struggle against dictatorship. "Their reporting on this issue is so malicious to an extent that even genocide perpetrators like Ganni and Morgan would have felt ashamed of," Kahin said. At this point a woman who was standing close to the podium shouted, "Kahin, I bet they won't broadcast this one."
Interestingly, only a brief speech given by Vice-President Ahmed Yassin on the occasion was broadcast by the government controlled radio. Opposition parties have long complained that Maandeeq and Radio Hargeisa report in favor of the government. Though Minister Duale promised on many occasions in the past to do something about the opposition" s grievances, he has never taken any practical steps to address them. As a result, the political parties in the opposition have relied heavily on the private press for coverage of their election campaigning. The government has remained tolerant of the fact that opposition parties could still have their opinions and activities covered by the much more popular independent press. This tolerance has apparently dried up after the private media ran stories on President Rayale" s past as former head of the dreadful NSS branch at Berbera during the mid eighties.
Earlier this month, Information Minister Duale had disclosed that the government was about to introduce a press law. The plan has drawn strong protests from the "The Somaliland Society of Independent Journalists And Writers." The SSJW reiterated that there was no need for a special law to govern the press. Instead, it called for the development of a "Journalists' Code of Conduct" by the journalists themselves. Minister Duale responded to this by hastily organizing a "Congress of Somaliland Journalists."
On March 10, the pro-government "Somaliland Journalists Association" or SOLJA was founded. Though in its articles of association Solja is defined as a union, this claim however does not conform to the background of its chosen leaders. Its top 3 executives and the entire executive committee members are either publishers of private newspapers (Jamhuuriya and Al-Huriya) or senior officials from Ministry of Information such as the director of Radio Hargeisa.
The Majority of Journalists working for the government, and the private media outlets that joined the SOLJA have not shown yet any signs of support for the new organization. When some of them expressed desire to join the SSJW, they were warned by Ministry of Information officials that they would lose their jobs if they did. According to one of these journalists, Mr. Duale was prompted to create SOLJA, not only for the marginalization of SSJW but also for accessing donor funding. In fact the Minister has campaigned with some success for obtaining funds from international organizations in the name of strengthening the institutional capacity of his Ministry. The Minister was told by at least one UN organization and the ICD that funds earmarked for supporting media organizations could be made available by them. Many journalists believe one of the main reasons that Mr. Duale wanted to establish SOLJA was to use it as conduit for aid money and for interfering in SSJW.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 57 February 22, 2003 20th Feb School Children Uprising Observed Hargeisa: The 20th anniversary of the 20th February school children uprising was observed on Thursday. It was 21 years ago when thousands of high school students went to the streets in protest against the imprisonment of members of the UFFO group by the dictatorial regime of Siyad Barre. UFFO was a self-help group whose members were mainly university graduates. They were arrested by Siyad Barre" s secret police for embarking on a scheme for cleaning Hargeisa" s only public hospital. After they were charged with acts of subversion and belonging to an illegal organization, members of the UFFO group were brought to Hargeisa regional court to stand trial. As thousands of students gathered in front of the court chanting for the release of the group, the security forces fired live bullets into the crowd. 17 student demonstrators were killed and many others were wounded as demonstrations spread to engulf much of the town.Most of the UFFO group members received long-term imprisonment sentences. The last bunch of them were released in early 1989. Early Thursday morning a wreath was placed at a memorial for the students that were engaged in Dagaxtuur "Stone throwing." Later, the occasion was marked by speeches at Al-khayria Plaza. Among the key-note speakers were KULMIYE party" s presidential candidate, Ahmed Sillanyo, UFFO veteran leader Mohamed Mohamud Omer Hashi, SNM veteran Mohamed Kahin and Somaliland Vice-President, Ahmed Yusuf Yassin. Somaliland" s former first lady Kaltum H. Dahir had also made her first public appearance on Thursday since the death of her husband, late president Egal. Kaltum was one of the demonstrating students on that Feb 20th day of 1982.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 57 February 22, 2003
Is the Ministry of Information Needed?
Like the old days of Siyad Barre, the radio and the 3 publications are used as propaganda tools. This is hardly surprising given that most of the staff at the Ministry came from the former state-controlled media institutions under the Barre regime. In fact, Somaliland" s Ministry of Information is the only government agency where one could be deceived into thinking that Siyad Barre is still in power here. Fortunately, Somaliland has independent private media that have taken roots, over the years since independence, to provide people with information. Somaliland" s private media have taken the impartial role of informing the people and allowing them to express their opinions on issues in a free manner. In this role, the independent media have nourished democracy more than anyone else. Contrary to the government-owned media, the robust independent press is a constant reminder to Somalilanders that their huge sacrifices for freedom have not been in vain.
Since the government media has been totally useless, it is untenable and counter productive to continue maintaining it. Money spent in this area could be re-allocated and cleverly used for publicizing Somaliland" s cause to the outside world that until now remains unknowledgeable about this country. Even if the government decides to keep its media outlets for the sake of "prestige," as some countries do, then it should at least turn its publications and radio into an independent and cost-effective media enterprise, where journalists and audience can exercise freedom of information and freedom of expressing their opinions without censorship.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 57 February 22, 2003
Political Mudslinging Campaign Against Rayale
This is precisely what the Silaanyo camp is doing and the electorate will judge them by it at the polls, to their cost. An interesting fact is that the ringleader of this particular circus of name-calling clowns is Mr. Muse Bixi. I seem to remember that when Silaanyo was Chairman of the SNM, during the Liberation War, a certain Mr. Bixi accused him of the 'war crime' of summarily executing brave, SNM officers & cadres who were opposed to Silaanyo's despotic rule over the SNM. Isn't this the same Mr. Bixi who is now using his name calling skills in the service of the same 'war criminal' Silaanyo? As they say, politics makes for strange bedfellows indeed!
Mr. Bixi should remember that the people of Somaliland are not children and that they remember his rantings & ravings of yesterday, as they will remember in the future his present fits of madness. Enough cries of 'wolf', Mr. Bixi, either engage in reasoned debate or keep your silence and your self-respect.
Finally, there has to be some integrity to political discourse if it is not to be debased to the level of braying animals. Somaliland is a country that has suffered state sponsored genocide and other crimes against humanity, while the perpetrators of these crimes proudly parade at international conferences as the self appointed rulers of their present victims in Somalia. We must, therefore reserve for these vampires their true label of 'war criminal', if we are not to rob the phrase of its true meaning and ourselves of the legitimacy to bring them to account for their deeds. For us Somalilanders, the term 'war criminal' has a very clear meaning and we also know who the criminals are. It is not a term to bandy about 'willy nilly' in the heat (desperation?) of the political" rough and tumble."
Regards,
Ahmed M.I. Egal
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 57 February 22, 2003
Abdirahman Hassan (Raas): The Singer/Songwriter Who Died Of Love
Adirahman Hassan' s career as a singer/songwriter was short lived. He only recorded three songs in his entire life. But his remarkable legacy as a great singer/songwriter and composer is remembered to this day, twenty-five years after his untimely death. His songs are played by some of his close friends and co-singers such as Ahmed Ali "Drum" and Faisel Omer "Mushteeg." (They were all members of the famous "Barkhadcas Band"). Faisel, a great admirer of the singer and a close friend remembers Mr. Hassan" s 1971 "Barkhadcas" concert debut as a turning point. " When Abdirahman came, it was the first concert of a three part series," Faisel recalled, "but he really lifted us up with his real, truthful, haunting voice, and carried me along. It was the most phenomenal debut since Mohamed Mogeh."
Hassan" s voice always made "Xodeydeh" s" "oud" scowl. His voice showed his deep seated feelings of suffering and intensity. He put on a blaring performance that held the audience rapt. In describing their chemistry - Xodeydeh and Hassan - you might say Hassan" s genial down-home bluesy style returned Mr. "Xodeydeh" to his serious "Qaaraami" roots. The expected song "Waan Ku Raadeeyaayoo," was delivered with freshness and heart. But the show" s most touching moment was Hassan" s rendition of, "hoordo Gaamaa Maa Leedo oo," an aching ballad that infuses agonized longing and despair with an almost Shakespearean sense of tragedy. Faisel adds, "When you sing Abdirahman" s songs, you must speak them in tune, because the love stories are so profound." Some of his lyrics:
- I don" t sleep at all
- Love never leaves me alone
- The stress in my body
- Drives me out of bed
- A man who has so many to choose, from his age group
- But who stays away from them, because of you!
- If you have any intelligence or empathy
- Do not foster harmful designs against me
- Do not discard me
- Do not reject me
- I would never have dismissed you!
- 2. I am trying to track you down
- I cannot rest
- My hair has a braided length
- I have dreadlocks, because of you
- When I look in front of me
- My false dreams make your vision real to me
- But, Allah has taken you to a place of honey
- Green grass and plentiful water
The song in English by Abdirahman Hassan
First Part
- When the earth is wet and full of moisture
- Flowers on the trees blooming
- You are like the efflorescent morning glory flower
- When someone is smitten by love
- You don" t just watch and stand by!
- What has come between us?
- Our state of affairs is in shamble!
Second Verse
- While I was waiting for your love
- My compatriots have surpassed me (financially)
- And I have neither money nor your love!
- What inspires me with awe?
- And hurt me badly
- Is your grand sublime and powerful beauty?
- My Dear Companion
- You have pierced me with spears
- Do not hurt me
- Take this load or saddle off of me
Most Somaliland artists and music lovers knew a secret that other people didn" t know. They knew that his love was real. They also knew that when someone is smitten by love, you don" t just stand by and watch!
Who has come between us?
Our state of affairs is in ruins.
Love was the cause of his untimely death. This puts him in the same category with a rare group of Somaliland poets who died when they couldn" t attain the object of their love. Elmi Bodheri is one of the most famous in this category. He was a 1940" s Somaliland poet who died of love, many Somalilanders believe. Therefore, one can arguably say that Hassan is the second person, after Elmi Bodheri to have died of love during the last century in Somaliland.
Abdirahman Hasan died in the mid- 70s in Dijiboati. He was only twenty years old. Abdirahman had a famous singer as a brother called Omer "Rooraayeh." He is remembered by many artists and Somali music lovers as one of the most gifted and talented artists of all time. If there was a "genius award," Mr. Hassan would have won, without a doubt.
Somaliland misses him a lot!
BBC Monitoring Reports, February 19, 2003/Source: UN Integrated Regional Information Network, Nairobi, in English 19 Feb 03 /BBC Monitoring
BREAK-AWAY SOMALILAND DENIES BACKING FORCES AGAINST RIVAL STATE
Abdullahi Muhammad Duale, the Somaliland information minister, told IRIN on Wednesday 19 February that the charges "are absolutely false and baseless".
Abdishakur Mire Adan, the Puntland deputy information minister, claimed that the Somaliland authorities were arming and supporting forces led by Gen Ade Muse, which are loyal to Jama Ali Jama. Both Jama and Col Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad claim to be the legitimate president of Puntland. "We have evidence that the Riyale administration (in Somaliland) has allowed Gen Ade Muse to import 12 four-wheel-drive vehicles through the port of Berbera (in Somaliland), and that seven of them have already been turned into technicals (battle-wagons)," Abdishakur told IRIN. He also accused Somaliland of providing the anti-Puntland forces with 300 assorted small arms.
Abdishakur went on to say that Muse's forces were being trained in Hamilka, Sanaag Region, under the protection of Somaliland forces based at the village of Dararweyn, also in Sanaag. Both Puntland and Somaliland claim ownership of Sool and Sanaag regions, a dispute which led to an attack last month on the Somaliland leader, Dahir Riyaleh Kahin, who was visiting the area. Abdishakur warned that Puntland was "losing patience". "We will be forced to take action against any party posing a threat to our security," he said. "If Somaliland does not stop meddling in Puntland affairs, they will have to face the consequences. The activities of the Riyale administration will lead to a clan war between the Harti (Darod) and the Isaq (the dominant clan in Somaliland)."
However, Duale told IRIN that the only people the Somaliland authorities were helping were "displaced people running for their lives". He said Somaliland would never jeopardize its tranquillity by getting involved in other people's disputes. "Our greatest asset is our security and stability, and we will not jeopardize it for any reason," he said. He noted in this context that Somaliland was busy preparing for its presidential elections, due to be held in mid-April. "Our democratization process is our number one priority," he added. Duale said that the Abdullahi Yusuf administration was behaving like "someone who has set fire to his house and is now trying to extend the fire to his neighbours". "Our policy is and has always been to promote peace and stability in our region," he asserted.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 56 February 15, 2003
Meeting held by Amnesty International in Collaboration With ICD And NOVIB
Discussions of the workshop focused on the role of "human rights defenders". The workshop was held as a result of a collaboration between several international organizations such as Amnesty International represented by Prof Ghanim Al-Najar of the University of Kuwait, who is the United Nations Independent Expert on Human Rights for Somaliland and Somalia, and Dr. Martin Hill from AI" s international secretariat in London; Deborah Ossiya and Fouzia H. Dahir from ICD; Dorothy Abbel of the Dutch-based NOVIB NGO and Ms Indai Sajor, a Philippino woman known for her campaigning for the rights of Asian women abducted during the second world war by the former Japanese Imperial Army for the purpose of providing sexual comfort to the soldiers.
Besides Somaliland" s NGOs, there were human rights defenders from a number of locations in Somalia, including the Mogadishu-based Ali Jimale Center for Human Rights. Delegates also came from as far as Baidoa and Kismayo. Before the last session ended, the conference agreed upon a declaration for Somali human rights defenders.
The UN independent expert for Somaliland/Somalia has described the declaration as an important achievement that is hoped to pave the way for human rights defenders in Somaliland and Somalia to serve their constituents in a much better way. "We also hope that networking between human rights defenders will be enhanced as a result of this workshop."
Many questions were raised during the workshop including the issue of past crimes and impunity. Both Martin Hill and Al-Najar have expressed amazement at the substantial rise in the number of human rights organizations in Somaliland since the 1998 human rights workshop held in Hargeisa jointly with ICD.
Al-Najar said the results of the 1998 workshop went beyond all imagination. According to Al-Najar, at least 10 of the participants of that workshop had since either joined or participated in the creation of new non-governmental organization dealing with various aspects of public life and meeting the needs of the needy people. "I have seen people doing nothing after completing training. But here it is an amazing thing to see people who 5 years ago knew nothing about human rights, now running successful human rights organizations. You just can" t expect more than that," said Al-Najar.
It was the first time that such a large group of Somalis and international human rights activists were brought together to discuss human rights issues, not only in this region, but also elsewhere in the world. It was also the first time the issue of past crimes was given prominence at a gathering for Somali human rights activists. In this respect, it has been strongly emphasized that there can be no lasting peace unless gross human rights violations and war crimes against humanity of the past are addressed and perpetrators brought to justice.
In this connection, participants listened to Ms Indai Sajor as she went on to tell the story of Asian women abducted as sex slaves during the second world war by the Japanese army. About 300,000 - 400,000 women from South Korea, North Korea, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Pacific Islands were held captive to sexually comfort Japanese soldiers. When Japan agreed in 1991 to participate in a UN peace-keeping force for Cambodia, survivors of the" Comfort Women" and human rights activists went to the streets in protest demanding that the Japanese soldiers be stopped from joining the peace keepers until Japan admits its past war crimes against Asian comfort women. What started in 1991 as a small protest, turned over the next 11 years into a well-organized grass-root level campaign sponsored by many human rights organizations and other civil society groups across South and South East Asia.
The campaign demanded that the Japanese government admit publicly the war crimes committed by its soldiers against comfort women and issue a full apology for those crimes. The campaigners also wanted an adequate compensation for the victims in addition to inclusion of references to the crimes in the curriculum for Japanese high schools so that such crimes would never happen again.
During her campaign Indai Sajor met with three different Japanese Prime ministers. So far, the Japanese government has refused to acknowledge responsibility for the war crimes its soldiers had committed against the Asian comfort women. Campaigners rejected an offer of $20,000 for each comfort woman.
An apology letter by Japan" s Prime Minister was also found as falling short of admittance of crimes. The campaign continues. "For similar crimes not to happen again, it is important that Japan takes full responsibility for the war crimes committed by its imperial army against comfort women more than 50 years ago," said Indai.
Source: Somaliland Times , Issue 57 February 22, 2003
President Rayale Inclined Against Enacting a Press Law
In an interview with the Somaliland Times held yesterday, the UN independent expert for human rights in Somaliland and Somalia said the President had told them that the government" s position on this matter has been greatly misunderstood.
The Somaliland House of Representatives had on several occasions in the past 3 years turned down attempts to consider a draft press law submitted by the government. The document contained many articles intended to substantially curtail freedom of the press.
Journalists working in the private media and the great majority of the Somaliland public have been opposed to the concept of "Press Law. Arguing that there was no need for enacting a special law for the press, journalists proposed instead that they be allowed to establish a "Journalists Code of Conduct." This position has not changed since. Two weeks ago, however, the Somaliland government, through its minister of Information, Abdillahi M. Dualle, had renewed its intention of introducing a press law in the country. The announcement immediately drew a strong opposition from the "Somaliland Society For Independent Journalists And Writers" which was founded on Dec 14, 2003 and later from the newly established "Somaliland Journalists Association."
However, following his meeting with Mr. Rayale, al-Najar said: "If I got it right, the president was not for a press law." Al-Najar went further to say that President Rayale was rather interested in a "Code of Conduct" and more professional training for journalists. "We appreciated this because I thought the press law was an oppressive thing and if I understood the president well, we're on the right track." Al-Najar said this would also mean that Somaliland will be spared experiencing the much-talked-about oppressive press law. Asked to confirm whether Mr. Rayale" s position on the issue of press law was fairly interpreted by the Amnesty team, Somaliland Presidency spokesman Abdi Idiris responded by saying the President had reassured the senior human rights officials that it is the policy of his government not to take any actions that might compromise the rights, or run against the interests of its citizens.
Source: The Somaliland Times , ISSUE 56 February 15, 2003
Faysal Omar Mushteeg - Somaliland" s Indisputable Male Vocalist! II
Part II - Faisel" s Poetry and Song
Faisel is one of the most talented and gifted Somaliland singers alive. Besides being a teacher, a world class soccer player, an intellect of enormous capacity to recite both classical Somaliland poetry and classical Arabic poetry by heart, a singer of a huge following, a living legend who became part of the oral folklore of Somaliland traditions. A mystic man who was taught at an young age by one of the foremost Somaliland "Sufi" scholars, Sheikl Ali Ibrahim", and an accomplished poet who can be compared to classical Somaliland poets, or, for that matter, classical Arab poets such as "Imra' Al Qays". His poetry goes back to when he was just a teenager.
Unlike other Somaliland poets, Faisel incorporates his poetry into his songs. Most of his poetry is about love, which many Somalilanders consider as Real love. It is no secret that Faisel fell in love with Shamis, his true and only one. When you ask him about marriage, he always points out, according to Abdi Nasser, a close friend and excellent oud player, of Faisel, that his one and only true love is Shamis, and if he could not marry her, he would remain a bachelor for life. Abdi Nasser and Mohamed Ahmed "Busy", another "Oud player and a colleague of Faisel's, argue that most of the lyrics of the "Qarraami" songs, or the "oldies" were primarily Faisel" s. But they add, since he never takes credit for the lyrics, other people assign credit to some obscure artists. The writer of this article concurs with the two above mentioned artists' assertions, since I reviewed an unpublished manuscript written by Faisel. He explained in his manuscripts some of his lyrics and shows without a doubt that it was his creations. Reading this manuscript led me to believe that most of the lyrics in the "Qaraami" or oldies were his own, since he describes when and where he was when he wrote some of those lyrics.
In the following pages we will attempt to translate some of Faisels lyrics and poetry.
- "Timaha halaqeed haldhaa moodiyo // Hair so soft like a bird's feather,
- Haybadaa wajigee hida u dhaladka // Face not spoiled by make-up since birth,
- Hubqaadkeedu hibasho igu reeb" // Her dressing style left me longing!
A rough translation of the above will be something like this:
- Daganeey sida dooxa daad marayo // Hey cool girl! Like the water that flows through a river,
- Daristii kaga taal labadaa dacaloo // The grass singing from both sides of the shore and the livestock did not eat,
- Dunyadii wali daaqin baad tahay // Yet to me, you are just like that.
- Sidii cir ku hooray meel cosobloo // Like the rain that pours into a green pasture,
- Cadceedi u soo baxdaad tahay // And the sun coming out, to me, you are just like that.
- Qod baad tahay meel qabow ka baxoo // You are like a tree that grows in a temperate climate,
- Qajeel ubaxii dhammaan qariyo // Flowers covering from top to bottom.
- Qacdii aan ku arkaan is qoonsadayo // I felt something special the moment I laid my eyes on you.
- Bal qabsoo waaban kuu qandhaysnahay // Honey, do you know that I love you!
Night
- Habeenyow dheeri waad idhibtoo // Oh long night! You give me so much pain,
- Dharaartaaduna iima kaa dhaantoo // The day does not treat me well either,
- Waa ii kala dhigantiin dhamaantiin // I feel miserable all the time.
Time
- Waan kula hadlaayaa waqtigan i hayow // Hey time! The one that is on me now. I am talking to you.
- Hadmaad anna ii hogaansami? // When are you going to obey me?
Sun
- Cadceedan i haysa eey hadaloo // Hey sun! That is hovering over me,
- Hadmaan anna kaa hadh galayaa? // Speak up and tell me when am I going to find a shelter?
Money
- Lacageey ragga kala labaayaay //You divide people into two,
- Haween lahashadooday // You help the poor and you bring down the rich,
- Liitaha gargaaray laqanna hoos u celiyaay // You are woman" s desire.
- Hubka laysku laayaay // You are the weapon that people fight with.
- Lisaanka iyo dooday // You are the tongue for those who want oratory.
- Hadana lagama maarmaay // But people still need you;
- Liibaanta joogtaay //you are the ever-present victory!
- Taan anigu ku loofaray // Oh! The money I spent friviously
- Een hore u lumiyaay // and lost at the end.
- Ladhkeedii habeenadan, hablow ladiba waaye lacageey // Oh women! How many nights do I have to lose my sleep over it
Shamis
- Laysumaa daayo laba is doonaysoo // They don" t leave two lovers alone,
- Dadkeenu waxyeeladuu doorbidaye // Our people love to create problems,
- Ku doorataye may i dayaayaan // Since you are the only one I desire.
- Hayaay Shamis sheekadiidii // Why can they not leave you alone? Oh how I long for Shamis" conversation!
- Nasiibkaygiyay is nici mayanee // My lucky star, we will never fall out of love,
- Intaad nabad joogto soo noqo // So come back to me in a healthy, good spirit.
- I pray to Allah the merciful; the benevolent to bring you back "Siiydeh" in good and healthy spirit.
- Dawee qalbigaa i daxalaystoo // I am heart broken.
- Hadalka i damqaaye iga daa // I can talk no more since it hurts to talk. Say nothing to me!
- Sidii baxarasaaf ku yaala bustaan // Like a tall tree growing in a beautiful garden,
- ayuun baad hadba ii bidhaanta // You just keep on shining to me!
- Like a love tree that grows in a vast empty space. // / Sidii geed ku yaal bankii giriyaad
- Is loneliness a thing that has been assigned to me? // // Goonidu waa mid laygu talagaly
- Ciilkayga kola caashaq dayn maayo // Oh! Pity me! I will never fall out of love.
- Ciyaarta cid kale la garan maayo // I know of no other dance partner like you.
- Carsaanyo sigaarka hayla cabtee // Take me to the sandy beach,
- Ciidiyo badda cagaha ii dhigga // So that crabs can smoke cigarettes with me.
- Cusbiyo kama maarmo geelu carro // Camels cannot live without grass and salt,
- Cirkiyo uu ogyahay halkii cosob lee // Camels know the places with abundant water and vegetation.
- ceeb maaha hadaan ku caashaqayay // It is not such a bad idea; I fell in love with you.
- Cidliyo haygu tuurin ciirsi la // Don" t throw me into the empty wilderness.
Conclusion
Faisel has been touching the soul of music lovers for nearly four decades, thanks to his warm songs that celebrate romance and love. With no vain desire or dreams of earthly glory and money or status, he keeps onward to explore through poetry and song, extending the realms of music, with the hope of aiding others to fall-in-love. In an interview for this article, Faisel says, "I just tell it like it is in my songs, even when love doesn't make me happy, and most often it is sad anyway. Instead of trying to contemplate what people might say about my song, I just sing from my heart. Most often, my best lyrics come to me when I am singing. And you know, I believe that is what touches people; people know it is the truth, because it comes from deep inside me.
Source: The Somaliland Times , ISSUE 56 February 15, 2003
The Status of International Law in the Domestic Legal System: A Neglected Matter by the Somaliland Constitution
However, it should be pointed out that the treatment given to international law by the constitutions of states is by no means uniform. While some constitutions give relatively detailed treatment others are restricted to one to two provisions of fundamental character on the status of international law leaving any lacuna that may manifest themselves to be taken care of by the courts in deciding particular cases raising questions of international law.
Regarding the recent Somaliland constitution adopted on 7th of May 2000, having broadly studied it, it's very unfortunate to conclude that it neither fails the former nor the later category. As will be shown on the following notes, the Somaliland constitution would almost be said to have nothing to say on the status of international law in the domestic legal system and its implementation in the country. To this connection let's briefly examine two clauses, which are normally incorporated to national constitutions pertaining to international law;
- Treaty -making power
- Status of International law in the domestic legal system
- Treaty-making power
Provisions on treaty making power are quite common in national constitutions. Since treaties are more then ever the most widely used instruments in the conduct of international relations and, as such, are the primary source of international law who, or which organ of the state has the power to bind the state in international agreements is of paramount importance in the conduct of a country's foreign policy. Although treaty-making power in strict sense is not a matter of international law but of domestic law, primary constitutional law, It" s ultimately related to international law by virtue of the fact that it gives notice to the rest of the world as to the law and procedure that has to be complies with if international agreements are to be binding on a particular state.
Now, what exactly is a treaty in its legal sense? Article 2\{1\}[a\} of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, answers us to that question by specifying a treaty to mean, as "an international agreement concluded between states in written form and governed by international law, whether embodied in a single instrument or in two more related instrument". But one would need to elude the misunderstandings in concluding that treaties are limited to states, as a treaty may be signed between a state and an international organization in which the case we could also call it a treaty. Obviously when we talk about treaty making power we are also talking about the power to inter in to international agreement.
With regard to capacity to conclude treaties, international law confines it self that "every state possesses the capacity to conclude treaties". This is clearly stated under article 6, of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Hence the question comes here, which organ of Somaliland state has the power to conclude treaties? Normally, most constitutions of states takes care of this query under the powers and structures of the organs of the states, mostly its confined to either on the executive, legislature or both. Regarding the constitution of Somaliland it got nothing to say on this issue, not a single provision in it is simplicity or implicitly mentioning the organ of the government, which has the authority to conclude treaties.
Status of international law in the Somaliland legal system
Let's now turn to the question of the status of international legal system under the Somaliland constitution. This is the single most important question on international law that any constitution has to deal with, given the significance of international agreements in the overall conduct of a country's foreign policy. Again on this point the constitution is silent on this essential aspect. To cite but a few examples on this matter relating to the other constitutions and how they determine it.
Actually, there are two doctrines expressing the status of international law in the internal legal system. First, there is the doctrine of "direct incorporation". It specifies the fact that treaties signed by the executive and which might be ratified by the parliament becomes an integral part of the law of the country, in other they have the status of the law of the land, i.e. laws enacted by the parliament and approved by it. Countries following the said doctrine are among others, Ethiopia, South Africa, Russia, Belgium, Hungary, Romania, etc.
The other doctrine is called the doctrine of "transformation". Under this one,a concluded treaty by who so ever organ of a state can not simply come under the category of the laws of the land unless a specific act expressing the fact that the international agreement concluded is passed by the legislature. A country known for following this doctrine is the United Kingdom. In the U.K in order for a certain treaty to be part of the law of the country there is a need of and act called "an enabling act of the British Parliament".
Notably, there is a considerable contrast between the "law of the land" and "supreme law of the land". The former, which we touched on earlier, is referring to the laws enacted by the parliament and at the same time endorsed by it, which is usually called "proclamations". While the later is concerned with the constitution, and normally there is in the constitutions a provision which is called "supremacy clause" expressing which law of a certain country is supreme to others laws. In connection to this, very few constitutions do make international agreements the same status as supreme law of the land, i.e. the constitution of U.S.A, which under article 6, provides "all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land".
To summer up, one would question himself why in a world a single provision is not seen in the Somaliland constitution dealing with the issues raised. In fact that will not make me surprised because that's exactly my problem. But I wonder if the motive that led the above issues to be ignored could be attributed to the fact of lack of recognition, thus, there is no need for the constitution to talk about the international agreement. If that was the rational that led this significant subject to be set aside, to me it sound absurd .For one thing, a question can be raised why the constitution was drafted in the first place, if it weren't meant coping with every aspect of the country's policy, national or international. After all, Somaliland desperately needs international attention, and if the basic single most important legal document is not crafted so well that it's silent on the country's foreign relations and it's implementation, I'm sure there will be a great deal of uncertainty and skepticism regarding the determination by the Somali Landers for there plea of international recognition. Hence, the legislature of the country needs to rethink on this matter and provide convincing provisions dealing with the specified issues.
Wais Kassim H. Dahir (LLB)
The Somaliland Times , Issue 55 February 8, 2003
Britain May Consider Sending Asylum Seekers From Somalia To Somaliland
London (The Guardian): A confidential government plan to slash the number of asylum seekers coming to Britain by deporting most of them to UN "protection areas" in their regions of origin has been drawn up by Whitehall and is to be presented to the prime minister this week.
The official figures for 2002 to be published later this month are expected to show that asylum claims topped 100,000 for the first time last year. Tony Blair has demanded weekly reports on asylum arrivals and has already made clear he wants to see a radical reduction in the number coming to Britain. Under the terms of the "restricted" joint Cabinet Office-Home Office policy document, which has been passed to the Guardian, the large majority of asylum seekers would lose their right to claim asylum in Britain and would be returned to "regional protection areas", where their applications would be processed.
Among locations mentioned for the regional protection areas, as part of a "new global asylum system", are Turkey, Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan for Iraqi refugees; northern Somalia for refugees from southern Somalia; and Morocco for Algerians. It also suggests Ukraine or Russia to stem the flow of economic migrants from the east of the new enlarged EU border.
Officials stress that care needs to be taken that the scheme is not seen as "dumping asylum seekers on the poorer nations" nor as "using money to enable us to wash our hands of the refugee problem".
Asylum seekers would stay in the UN special protection areas for six months while the position in their home country stabilized. The scheme envisages that those in need of longer-term protection could be resettled in Britain and other European countries under a burden-sharing quota scheme determined by each country's population.
The report also sets out a case for international intervention to reduce the flow from the main refugee-producing countries with a graded response ranging from aid packages through sanctions to armed intervention as a key element of what it calls a "new vision for refugees".
While conceding that "any coercive intervention in other states is of course controversial", the Whitehall policy document argues for international recognition of the need to intervene to reduce "flows" of refugees, including "military action as a last resort".
The report, which would require international agreement and funding, is to be presented to Ruud Lubbers, the UN high commissioner for refugees, when he meets senior British ministers in London on Monday. Under the policy, the UNHCR would be responsible for the regional protection areas and, if it agrees to take on the role, the detailed plans for the first pilot schemes could be ready this summer. Initially it could be taken forward by a coalition of five EU states willing to fund the scheme. The officials raise the possibility of Australia joining as well.
It is thought the plan could be carried out without changes to the Geneva Convention or European convention on refugees. The plan makes clear that the quality of protection in the UNHCR areas will have to be high enough to satisfy a British court that the human rights of those removed from Britain were not being abused by the scheme. Deporting asylum seekers to protection areas should "rapidly reduce the number of economic immigrants using asylum applications as a migration route", the report argues, as well as being a deterrent to "potential terrorists". The restricted policy document says the plan "should gradually reduce the number of asylum seekers who enter the UK and need to be processed in the UK. Therefore this takes the burden off the current asylum system but will not completely replace it."
The Somaliland Times , Issue 55 February 8, 2003
Information Minister to Found Union for Journalists
On Thursday, the minister of information assigned a special committee with the task of introducing the press law. A group of journalists consisting mainly of persons working for the government-controlled media, as well as owners and managers of a number of private media outlets are expected to take part in the meeting to be held today at Mansoor Hotel. The meeting comes in less than 2 months since another group claiming to be advocating for journalists rights and zero intervention by government in media affairs, had proclaimed the formation of "Society for Somaliland Independent Journalists and Writers."
According to one of the participants invited to today's meeting, the purpose of the gathering will be to be to formulate guidelines for journalistic ethics and rights, as well as, the launching of a new union to represent Somaliland's journalists. But SSJW Chairman Ahmed Ali Garas cast doubts on whether this would be the case. "Though I hate to make a prejudgment on what will be the outcome of this meeting, from what I know I will be very surprised if anything good came out of it," said Garas. In fact, many journalists think that the sole purpose for organizing the whole meeting has been to create an opportunity for introducing a pro-government journalists union, and declaring support for a government-inspired code to restrict the editorial independence currently enjoyed by the private media.
Despite the obvious heavy-handed role of the government in organizing the meeting, yet among the government employed journalists, only a small number have indicated that their labor rights would be better protected, or the extent of their editorial independence be substantially improved, as a result of this event. "Since it is the owners who are meeting to decide our fate, we can't expect them to decide raising our salaries or allowing us to speak our conscience while reporting," said a government employed journalist who chose to remain anonymous.
Actually, it was the media barons who had pre-selected the participants. Attendants are therefore going to be identified as representatives of their respective media outlet. To give the meeting a measure of credibility, organizers sought participation of both President Rayale and leaders of the two opposition parties in the opening ceremony.
The ICD, a UK-based organization was also tricked by the organizers into contributing an undisclosed amount of money in the name of support for holding a workshop on Somaliland's media. Meanwhile, in a statement issued last night, the SSJW expressed regret that it was not informed, let alone consulted, about the media meeting to be opened today at Mansoor Hotel.
The SSJW statement said there was no need for enacting a specific law for regulating the press. It reiterated its position that journalists be allowed to continue developing their own common "journalists' code of conduct." The SSJW Secretary General, Arale Mahmud Jama, said his organization has already drawn a journalists' code for its members to follow. He also said a panel has been named as a self-regulatory body to deal with violations by and complaints against the media. The SSJW warned that its members would not be bound to comply with any press law to be issued by the government in the near future."If someone feels unsatisfied by the actions to be taken by the disciplinary panel, then one could still go to court to seek legal action," said Mr. Arale.
The Somaliland Times , Issue 55 February 8, 2003
No to Censorship
Somalilanders whether at the individual or community levels are very much unlikely today to be incited into violence by acts of injustice or humiliation as they are able to freely express their grievances through the independent media. It is unimaginable that the citizens of this country would have confidently welcomed the idea of multiparty free elections had they not been aware of the fact that the independent media was going to be there to act as the public's most reliable watchdog.
Only a fool would claim that the national press has not made mistakes. On the contrary, terrible mistakes were made in the past and continue to be made until now especially when covering local news developments. But then these kinds of mistakes are rarely committed intentionally. They can actually be attributed to a number of factors, but mainly occur due to poor academic training of media personnel, severe shortages in material and human resources needed for information gathering and thorough researching, as well as, a common tendency among government officials to suppress information from the public. And there is no doubt that Somaliland's independent media has still a long way to go. Nevertheless, improvements could be achieved through constant upgrading of the journalists' knowledge and the acquiring of adequate resources by media institutions.
The much-needed input could have been facilitated by the government. It chose not to do so. Surprisingly, however, the government of President Rayale intends to introduce draconian measures to curb the country's press freedom. As disclosed by his Minister of Information on Thursday, the Rayale Administration is determined to get the House of Representatives to pass a so-called press code, ostensibly for the regulation of the media. As the government owned media has never been even modestly free, the real purpose of enacting this repressive law is to deny Somaliland's public the chance to be informed in a free manner by the independent press.
This code has already been rejected by members of the independent media, not only due to the many restrictions it imposes on press freedom, but also because it is unnecessary. Instead, the government should leave journalists alone so that they can develop their own code of conduct and self-regulatory bodies. Somaliland journalists can and should strive for maintaining the highest professional and ethical standards. And there are ways for punishing those who fail to comply with the rules such as their being publicly disgraced. In fact this would be the job of the Journalists Union. Public officials and private citizens could still sue for libel damages at the country's civilian courts if they were not happy with any public measures taken by the union against offending journalist or media institution.
Somaliland's independent media has helped bring the citizens of this country more closely to each other than any time before. Thanks to the freedom of information they have been enjoying, Somalilanders have been able to articulate and voice in a much more stronger manner their common aspirations and concerns. With slightly over two months to go before the next Presidential election, candidate Rayale will be committing the mistake of his life if he allows his information minister to jeopardize the right of the people to know by introducing the draconian press law lying in his desk drawer.
The Somaliland Times , Issue 55 February 8, 2003
A Silent President, War Crimes And A Future In The Balance
A question of fundamental importance has been raised in the discussion of the criminal culpability of the incumbent President Mr. Rayale. It is an issue that cannot be submerged. Leaving aside considerations of his numerous deficiencies for the office of President, the man, the UDUB Chairman, the President must RESPOND to us, his people.
We are in the midst of heated Presidential elections; it is incumbent upon us to ask the right questions at the right time. We should not be afraid to leave no stone unturned. It is not "mud raking" or a character assassination to inquire into the suitability of a candidate who by default became President (though constitutionally correct) and through rushed political expediency has had his term extended, (though constitutionally very dubious) who deems himself fit to become our elected President.
Mr. Rayale's checkered past is well known among relevant international circles. Ms Rakiya Omaar's recent article was the icing on the cake. Ms. Omaar's is an academic with an impeccable human rights record whose word and findings are taken seriously. To dismiss her article as a clan biased stunt is to reduce the level of intellectual debate in our country.
The first comprehensive codification of War Crimes was under the Leiber Code issued by President Lincoln in 1863 during the American Civil War. Since then numerous international humanitarian law treaties have come about including, the Hague Conventions of 1907, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Geneva Protocols of 1977. Under Article 8 of the Rome Treaty of the International Criminal Court, the ICC (International Criminal Court) has jurisdiction over a wide range of war crimes committed in both international and internal armed conflict, including civil wars. The Treaty makes it clear that the ICC has jurisdiction over the increasing number of war crimes committed during conflicts between armed political groups, as well as government forces. Very briefly, the treaty covers three types of war crimes in internal armed conflict: Violations of humanitarian law recognized under Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions, including: intentional attacks against the civilian population.
Violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions against civilians, wounded and detainees Killing or wounding treacherously a combatant adversary
On June 27, 2001, the United Nations issued a press release stating that a Memorandum of Understanding was to be signed between the United Nations and the Government of Cambodia in aiding to help bring about trial for the atrocities of the Cambodian civil war. People asked could Cambodia's domestic laws handle the magnitude of the crimes in question? Could the body of international criminal law, still in its infancy, be used to prosecute cases in Cambodian courts? What sorts of evidence would be admissible? How would the tribunal deal with the amnesty's granted by King Norodom Sihanouk? What would be the effect of Cambodia's notoriously corrupt judiciary on a genocide tribunal, and vice versa? Nevertheless the mechanism was established to put Pol Pot's former linchmen to court some 26 years after the civil war. By comparison our civil war was but yesterday afternoon.
We may be not at the stage of planning the mechanisms of trials but relevant questions must be asked. Why has Mr. Rayale, who has been accused of heinous crimes never publicly refuted the allegations or offered us an explanation? Why has Mr. Riyaale who is supposed to be "campaigning" never EVER been heard arguing or airing his views? What does he have to hide? The two other Presidential candidates are rightly in the public arena. Is he scared that we will see him for what he truly is?
The Somaliland Times , Issue 55 February 8, 2003
Rayale Is A Material Witness
Dahir Rayaale Kahin witnessed en masse crimes being committed against humanity. That is according to Dr. Tani. In order to avoid the mishap of taking it out of context and the art of slanting, Dr. Tani's relevant posted on various websites and in the print media regarding General Tallan and Rayale's tour of duty in Berbera is quoted below.
"General Tallan shot several of his officers for the atrocities they did to the civilian population of Berbera. He told me in 1991 while he was a Governor of the Somaliland government in Borama, that when he was transferred to Berbera in late 1988 it was Mr. Rayale who told him about the crimes that are going in the area, and how as a junior officer he is incapable of doing anything material about it other than hiding some people. Gen. Tallan told me that without Mr. Rayale's help and informations he could not have stopped the atrocities that were continuing under his nose."
It is clear from this important piece of information which Dr. Tani kindly shared with the World a) that Rayaale has witnessed crimes committed (under his nose) against humanity while in a position of authority but failed to save except few b) that General Tallan shot several of his officers on the spot without due process.
While Rayale's admission is hardly a bombshell because of the specific incidents chronicled by Africa Watch, General Tallan's admission is shocking and damaging. Needlessly, this new development incriminates general Tallan and substantiates the allegations leveled at Rayaale. In fact it corroborates the pattern and the specific incidents documented by Africa Watch. Tallan's admission of vigilantism by summary execution is poignant remainder of the kangaroo courts and what went awry in Berbera and throughout Somaliland in general under the "faqash" regime.
While Rayaale's claim of saving few is admirable if substantiated, he is obligated morally and legally to divulge the secrets that he kept from the public for a long time. According to Africa Watch and other human rights organizations about 500 people were summarily executed in Berbera and we learned from General Tallan through Dr. Tani that Rayaale knew these atrocities but was unable to stop. That being the case, Rayaale knows who gave the order, who carried-out the executions, the names and the number of innocent citizens executed, the locale of the hidden mass graves and other relevant evidence. Rayale might even be in possession of valuable documents. What is the right thing to do, Mr. Rayaale? Unfortunately, what we know is only the tip of the iceberg. We just learned that General Tallan shot point-blank on the spot several of his officers who committed atrocities against the civilian population in Berbera. Specifically, we know that General Tallan shot several and according to the dictionary, several is more than two but less than many. While the floor of many is more than two, the ceiling could be as high as hundreds or thousands and more. With the limited information Dr. Tani shared with the community, it is safe to say with certainty that General Tallan shot three at least but with less certainty at most the number he shot could be hundreds or. .or fill the blank.
These confessions recounted separately by Rayaale and Tallan is more convincing and more powerful than the allegations chronicled on the Africa Watch Report. One has to remember that the allegations on the Report remain to be allegations until proven by a court of law. But considering the confessions, it is no longer in the realm of allegation; Rayaale confessed witnessing these killings. I am a layman in law but common sense tells me that the fact that Rayaale knew these killings, the fact that he has failed to report it to human rights organizations at the time of the mass murder and the fact that once again he failed to officially come forward as of today, is serious enough to convict him in a court of law, if it comes to that. I hope, not. For your information, Mr. Rayale, I didn't do it isn't a defense.
For the record, Personally, I believe that the few who designed the horrific policy of ethnic cleansing like Murgan, Gani and Adan Gebyow and their cronies who carried-out willingly have to be hunted down and brought to justice, no matter how long it takes. But I also believe that the "junior" officers like Rayaale who witnessed such crimes should come forward and tell it all publicly in a forum similar to the truth and justice reconciliation Forum, which South Africa pioneered. The truth should come out. Only then, hatchets should be buried for good. But, I also believe that witnessing atrocities of that scale and failing to speak-out as of today mires the morals and the judgment of Rayaale. And that makes him unfit for the highest office. To my knowledge, no one is advocating prosecuting Rayaale but considering the voluntary confessions that came to light, it is appropriate to hold both Rayaale and Tallan as a material witness.
What makes this story credible is the reputation and the stature of its narrator, Dr. Tani. Dr. Tani came from a well-respected religious family from Borama. He is a well-liked physician, affable with a considerable intellect, prudent man who doesn't lightly smear people. Furthermore, Dr. Tani has no grudge against Rayaale or Tallan. Already, Dr. Tani has told us in his article that he isn't only related to Rayaale but he is also a good friend of him. This tells us that Dr. Tani has no intention to incriminate his relatives and friends and what he narrated in first hand is the truth and nothing but the truth. For that we thank Dr. Tani.
Let us hope that Rayaale and General Tallan would come forward and tell it all, with the same spirit, they confided with Dr. Tani for the sake of Posterity. Once again, for the record, it must be stated that Rayaale and General Tallan weren't under duress when they voluntarily made these confessions. On behalf of the families of the victims, we plead with Rayaale, as a material witness, to help his country document the atrocities committed against humanity. That is all we are asking.
The Somaliland Times , Issue 55 February 8, 2003
Open Letter to the President of Somaliland Mr. Riyale
As a citizen of this country and a patriot I have decided to share my thoughts with you Sir, and the people of this country.
Your Excellency, I believe that the idea of citizenship and the rule of law are the mark of civilization and the basis of a progressive political community. This country cannot be said to be at a stage where these ideals are in fruition; however, it is indispensable that the political template of this country be altered so as to organize the country towards that aspiration.
Sir, I believe it is not only a responsibility of a citizen to speak out when his government has gone out of kilter, I believe it is also civic duty. I also believe that exercising one's freedom of speech, a concept that is now deeply etched in the legal tablets of international law and morality, is above all what best describes the meaning of what it is to be a citizen.
Sir, Somaliland was freed from an inhuman dictator for thirty years of anarchy and disaster This tragedy need not be recounted in this letter, suffice to say that, Somaliland is the crystallization of the triumph of the people of this country over the dictatorship. There was a human disaster. The people of Somaliland suffered a daily humiliation that has left deep psychological wounds on the political culture of the country. This is why, it is still very difficult for the common man, and in fact the country's political culture to come to terms with the Somali question in general given our predicament. So this fledgling little country of ours is at a crucial period is its metamorphosis. In fact so delicate are the current geo-political and various candidates campaigning the power that is very survival and depends on a safe and trusted pair of hands.
I am personally quite worried; the current administration's tenure has been further extended by the council of elders (friends of the chair). They listened the claims and the proposals of the all opposition parties but closed their ears and supported the injustice vote plan. For all the ideological debates and views on suitability of various candidates, if the current government is allowed to retain total control of the means and assets of government it CANNOT be a fair election. Why are people so mute on this point? We, the people demand that our government abides by rules of fairness and transparency and allows crucial portfolios to be governed in a more inclusive manner. They are a political party as well as the government. But they must remember above all that they are only one party, the nation has chosen another five besides.
Political activities are no doubt of greater importance to the life a community than economic or social activities, deserving therefore to be accorded more respect and protection. You have the right for association at the same time you got limits; you cannot throw the nation into anarchy. Using division and hate to come to power is a dangerous game.
We must take into account Somaliland's history and culture, and the character of our people, and its social structure and other relevant factors. In particular the extent to which the people have accepted three times the object of politics as being to persuade and convince rather than to fight or to be scattered. The government should avoid not creating insecure political environment and leading the country into chaos.
I believe it is impossible to have a free election of the president voting since there were a great mismanagement of the last election and as we are aware the so called failed parties are insisting not to accept the victimized injustice and still they have their supporters and they are convincing their evidence of not being legally failed parties anywhere. Concerning the situation and the unity of our government of Somali land I would advice you sir, the following two points which I belief would lower the current tension:
All the six parties should exist and registered as national parties.
The commission of the elections should be changed since they have failed to be honest in the last election for the local governments, and created so many conflicts.
We want clean politics and responsible politicians.
Let me conclude my letter unless your government dramatically changes its political program it will unleash the forces of darkness and chaos. I hope the will of the honest citizen like mine shall have more consideration with your Excellency.
The Somaliland Times , Issue 55 February 8, 2003
The Silent Majority!
Recently, a barrage of allegations and accusations against President Dahir Rayyale has surfaced accusing him of human rights violations. The accusers - defending a certain political line of course - have charged the President with one simple line: that he bears a heavy responsibility for heading a national security office at time of gross human rights violations. The defenders - defending a certain political line of course - have argued that a double standard has been used, effectively ruining the litmus test for a passing grade - objectivity. They point to other politicians who serve the government or are in the opposition as proof that Miss Rakiya Omaar only raison d'\'e8tre is not her human rights activist record but her rather clannish dispensation. The thesis is these discussions being that shackle or albatross that hangs heavy on the Somali psyche: the resort to that old and well tried line, when in doubt cry clannism, and let loose the dogs of confusion!
As a strong supporter of the President, and sometime scribbler of why we should elect him, these accusations against a sitting president stunned my vocal cords back to the pre-literate state. Shocked at the flippant and glib way that the accusers portrayed their case and appalled by the responses that followed, I decided to step back and ask, what is similar in the ways that both the accusers and the defenders acted that makes your senses recoil from their and thoughts? As a regular Somalilander, courteousness and good manners are not only important in our collective cultural lexicon; they are in a word, what distinguishes us in our daily intercourse with each other. It is normal for example, to meet a group of Somalilanders and immediately know that they hail from the same cultural matrix simply by the way one is say, invited to join a gathering, a home, a community, or a discussion. As a male, I can say without doubt that, even when discussing critical issues in male dominated meetings, there is transparency, passion, debate and even anger at some points of discussion. However, it is most of all, civil at its core. It is, to use a worn Latin description, our modus operandi.
What is different about the debates surrounding these debates is that they really are not debates about urgent issues of national importance, or the ability of the political parties to articulate an agenda for the people of this country, rather it is an attempt at politics gone crooked and awry. I am deeply disturbed by what is the sub-text of these debates, and that is, the wickedness and malice with which both groups have handled themselves. This is something new to our political vocabulary and it is cause for great concern.
Some of the writing I see for example causes one to think about how callous and ruthless politics makes of our passions. I am amazed as well at the people who are participating in deliberately destructive discourse.
The fundamentals of this clash, gentle reader, are/is simply this: on the side of the accusers, the theme is to destroy the moral credentials of an opponent so that even if the President is elected this case will always cast doubt on his actions and intensions. Once you shred the credibility of the President, voters will recoil from electing him paving the way for an opponent to cruise into the presidency. The collateral damage - to use an Iraqi word - done to the presidency itself escaping this logic. The question to be asked here is, isn't the presidency a pulpit where the ordinary concerns of the people can be articulated by an elected leader? Flowing from this, does there not reside the basic sovereignty of the people there? To answer these questions one needs to revise the word 'public interest" so as to lament the state of affairs.
On the side of the defenders, play the victim card and guilt trip every Somali Lander so as to vote for the President. Using the "our turn" philosophy that Somaliland has actually moved away from, and thus playing into that blame cycle that ordinary Somalilanders are trying to push into the dustbin of history.
Caught between these competing views are the actual victims of gross human rights violations: the people of Somaliland. That these two groups have abandoned all claims to basic decency and that their respective political agenda have been turned into 'cyber wars" characteristic of a time when we had to defend Somaliland on the net, has sent shivers among Somalilanders.
I believe that the "silent majority" in Somaliland will not buy into this discourse. I also believe that the strategists of both camps have made a mistake and I believe that they will pay when election time comes. The people of Somaliland are no longer playthings at the hands of politicians and know a duck if it walks like a duck and talks like duck, it is a duck. On this issue there are too many ducks quaking! Enough already!
The Somaliland Times , Issue 55 February 8, 2003
Faysal Omar Mushteeg - Somaliland's Indisputable Male Vocalist!
Faisel Omer is surrounded by musicians and singers in a smoky house in Saudi Arabia. One of the rooms of the house is turned into a studio of sorts. It is 1984, less than four years before he leaves Saudi Arabia for good, and finds himself in the middle of the Civil war in Somalia, and the program is to record what many Somaliland music critics call the best Somaliland tape ever to be recorded.
In the daunting company of Somaliland's music icon and king of "Oud", Xudaydi", Faisel has the presence of symphony conductor. Listening to that long ago cassette tape, one gets the impression that had he not been a singer of incalculable influence and a legend of his own time, Faisel would have found some other way of changing the world.
The 56-year-old singer/song writer/composer/teacher and poet, is by Somaliland's standards the indisputable male vocalist alive! Much has been said about Faisel's love of "Shamis", the woman who inspired his songs and poetry, which incidentally transformed him into a folk hero, a legend and mythic figure of enormous popularity both among the young and the old, women and men of Somaliland. This true, but rather exaggerated account has perhaps distracted people from his art.
In the four decades since Faisel's first song, he has come to represent the essence of the music: its beauty, its richness and yes, it's danger. His hauntingly sensual voice could transform even the most ephemeral song, for instance, a song called "intii aan ku baryaayey", sung by Abdillahi "Sooraan", was later sung by Faisel, and no one believes it is the same song, his voice made it into a work of overwhelming emotion.
Unlike most Somaliland singers, Faisel is considered better than those in the Bandstand. The only musician of equal stature is "Xudaydi", who when they play together literally transforms the "Oud", sound into Faisel's voice. Faisel is praised by many as the definitive modern Somali singer, after whom most Somali singing styles, since "Qaraami" in the fifties have been fashioned. He is without a doubt the best singer alive, after Mohamed Mogeh. True, he has his rivals, Mohamed Ahmed, Moham