Somaliland leader buried

The president of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, Muhammad Ibrahim Egal, who died last week, was buried on Monday next to his father's grave in the port town of Berbera, a local source told IRIN.

Egal died on Friday in a South African military hospital in Pretoria, where he had been receiving treatment.

Somaliland unilaterally declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 after the downfall of former leader Muhammad Siyad Barre. Egal became Somaliland's second president in 1993, when traditional elders (Gurti) elected him for a four-year term, and again in 1997. In January, Egal asked for and received a one-year extension to his term, which was to have expired in February. The extension was, however, challenged by opposition figures who described it as illegal.

Egal, who is said to have been in his seventies at the time of his death, was a contemporary of Africa's independence leaders of the 1960s, a Somali expert told IRIN. Egal started in politics in the 1950s when he was part of the independence movement of the-then British Somaliland Protectorate. He was appointed as first minister of Somaliland in 1959, and led it to independence on 26 June 1960. Four days later, on 1 July, Egal united Somaliland with the newly- independent Italian Somalia, to form the Republic of Somalia.

He became a member of Somalia's first cabinet as defence minister. In 1964, Egal resigned from the Somali Youth League (SYL) ruling party and formed the Somali National Congress (SNC). In 1967 he rejoined the SYL and was named prime minister.

In 1969, Egal's government was overthrown in a military coup. He and all the other members of the cabinet were arrested. He was released in 1975, and appointed ambassador to India, but was rearrested six months later and remained in jail until 1982.

After his release, he stayed out of politics for most of the 1980s, until the outbreak of the civil war, but subsequently became one of the co-chairmen of the 1991 Djibouti 1 and 2 Somali reconciliation conferences. In 1993, when the term of Somaliland's first president expired, Egal ran for the post and was elected by traditional leaders.

With the exception of a short period of insecurity in 1994-95, Egal managed to keep Somaliland stable, a western diplomat told IRIN on Monday. Despite being unable to gain international recognition for Somaliland, he remained "a respected elder statesman", he said. "Love him or hate him, Egal has made people take Somaliland seriously," a regional analyst told IRIN.

His death comes at a time when Somaliland is in transition, when it is in the process of trying to move forward with multiparty elections, the analyst added.

There are two opposing ideas on the way forward after Egal's death. The first holds that Somaliland is a constitutional democracy with a multiparty system, and should therefore move ahead with multiparty elections, she said.

But the other view contends that Somaliland is still too immature for this, and therefore a national conference of all the clans should decide the way forward. "No one can predict which view will prevail in the long term, but in the short term, the constitutional process will continue," the analyst said. "There is a process in place and it seems to be working. This is a question that has to be resolved, but it is unlikely it will lead to any violence or instability."

Egal has kept Somaliland stable, when the rest of Somalia remained chaotic, and set up some institutions which have benefited everyone, a western expert on Somalia told IRIN. "This will be the greatest deterrent to any outbreak of violence," he said.

Egal's legacy to Somaliland was the constitution, which would serve to render the transition smooth, said former Somali ambassador and writer Husayn Du'ale. He said Egal's likely successor would have very large shoes to fill. In the case of Egal, "politics was the only profession he knew, and he was very good at it", Du'ale said. No-one else could have kept Somaliland stable, peaceful and together. He added that he was sure Somaliland would outlast Egal, because he had armed it with a constitution, which could be used as a road map.

Meanwhile, Egal's vice-president, Dahir Riyale Kahin, was sworn in as acting president on Friday in accordance with the Somaliland constitution, Radio Hargeysa reported.

Egal is survived by his wife and five children.