IRIN Interview with Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, spokesman for Somaliland Forum

Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, an author from the department of linguistics at the University of Montreal, is spokesman for the Somaliland Forum, an established international diaspora organisation of “concerned people from Somaliland”. He told IRIN that Somalilanders had rejected the Djibouti-hosted Somali Peace Conference and could not endorse “an unrepresentative government for Somalia set up in exile”. The administration in the self-declared state of Somaliland has rejected the Somali Peace Conference, saying it is up to the warring southern factions to reconcile themselves before talks between Somaliland and southern Somalia can take place. Q: Do you think Somaliland should have representation at the Djibouti conference? A: The Djibouti conference is not a place for Somaliland to be. First, this is a conference of Somalia or southern factions to resolve the ongoing instability and war in Somalia proper. Somaliland is not a faction; Somaliland is a state and would negotiate only with a Somalia government. Somaliland has established governance and peace after having reverted to its independent status of 1960, which was in the form of the State of Somaliland with frontiers inherited from the British Protectorate of Somaliland. Additionally, the President of Djibouti [Ismail Omar Guelleh] is inimical to the interests of Somaliland and, even if Somaliland wanted to contribute, as a state, to the conference - financially or technically - there would be objections. There is no doubt that President Guelleh is committed to see Somaliland disappear from the map... The people of Somaliland still remember very well whose side Guelleh was on when they were being subjected to a genocide in 1988 and 1989 by the Somalia government of Siad Barre. Q: Do you think the Djibouti-hosted talks have the capacity to damage Somaliland? A: Talk of reconciliation for Somalia factions is not, in itself, damaging to Somaliland. Let us remember the President of Somaliland [Mohamed Ibrahim Egal] offered to host a Somalia peace conference in 1999 to be held in the Somaliland capital [Hargeisa] ... What could be damaging to Somaliland, and to the whole region of the Horn, is President Guelleh guiding the conference and influencing the outcome. For example, the conference has issued statements to the effect that Somaliland does not exist, and that the frontiers of Somalia are sacrosanct. The people who have been issuing such statements forget that the only frontiers that are sacrosanct in Africa are those inherited from colonial powers, which means Italy for Somalia and Britain for Somaliland ... Another revelation of worrisome events in-waiting comes from the Djibouti state-owned media, which said in an editorial on 27 May that Djibouti would help Somalia to “take care of” Somaliland. Now if that is not a threat of war, what else could it be? Q: Is it right for the Somaliland administration to prevent attendance? A: The people of Somaliland have worked hard to establish peace and governance, and they are rightly apprehensive about the not-so-subtle moves coming from President Guelleh of Djibouti. That being said, Somaliland is not engaged in preventing anyone from going anywhere. In fact, the airport at Hargeisa has become the most international of all airports in the Horn, with flights to Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Eritrea, as well as to the Gulf Arab countries. Somaliland is for the principle of establishing peace in Somalia and has, time and again, encouraged the Somalia factions to establish peace and governance so the two countries can have fruitful dialogue and cooperation. But it is another matter when the beleaguered regime in Djibouti sends agents provocateurs with cash to sabotage Somaliland and to entice a few people to the conference, so there will be token Somalilanders to hoodwink international opinion and claim that representatives from Somaliland were there. Q: Why do you think Somaliland has managed to establish an administration while the south has failed? A: The reason that Somaliland has managed to successfully establish peace and governance is that peace was first established, and only then was a national government put in place. A series of grassroots conferences attended by traditional leaders of all Somaliland clans were held. These were the Berbera conference of 1991; the Burao conference of 1991, in which the assembly of communities declared the end of the union with Somalia; and the Borama conference of 1993. In fact, President Guelleh of Djibouti is trying to replicate the successful elders’ conferences of Somaliland. But the difference is that the conferences that brought peace to Somaliland were made without the presence of foreign interference: the discussions and the agenda were not imposed on the conferees. The result was peace first, followed by a national government. The conference in Djibouti is putting the cart before the horse and is trying to cobble a government before peace has been established and communities reconciled with each other in Somalia, as was attempted so many times before. There can be no peace in Somalia unless the populations, without any foreign interference, come to terms with their problems and establish peace among themselves. That cannot be done when dissenting views are suppressed at a conference... Q: Will Somaliland recognise a new government elected in Djibouti? A: Somaliland will have a bilateral relationship with a government that has been agreed upon by the people of Somalia, because Somaliland needs to have cooperation and friendly relations with its neighbours in the Horn. However, the conference in Djibouti has been rejected by most communities in Somalia - such as Puntland, central regions, Benadir and the riverine communities. Put together, that accounts for most of the people in Somalia. Therefore, Somaliland cannot endorse an unrepresentative government for Somalia set up in exile. Q: What role has the Somaliland diaspora played in establishing Somaliland? A: The Somaliland diaspora was not much involved in establishing Somaliland in the first few years; this was the task of the local populations and their representatives. In contrast, the people trying to establish a government for Somalia at this moment, with the aid of President Guelleh of Djibouti, are - except for warlords and the poor enticed with cash handouts - mainly diaspora Somalis and tourists. The role of the Somaliland diaspora has been, in the total absence of international assistance, to help the people of Somaliland with meaningful development projects such as schools, universities and hospitals. It should be mentioned that Somaliland, which never had a university in 30 years of union with Somalia, now has two universities and several vocational colleges, built virtually without outside help. Q: Why do you think the international community refuses to recognise the declared independence of Somaliland? A: There has been no stated refusal of recognition, as far as we know, and Somaliland enjoys in the region a ‘de facto’ existence, with offices of legation in Addis Ababa and, until recently, in Djibouti ... until Guelleh expelled the Somaliland representative and closed down the Somaliland Bureau. The lack of official recognition is tied to three situations: The first is the lack of a government in Somalia. If Somalia gets its own government, either its leaders will have the wisdom of the Ethiopians who agreed to the independence of Eritrea or they will have myopic views about the reality on the ground, and engulf the whole region in another war affecting the populations of Somalia, Somaliland, Djibouti and Ethiopia. The second situation comes from the double standards exercised by the major western powers, who are always forthcoming with recognition for countries that come out of the eastern bloc in Europe but have not much interest, now the cold war has ended, in African politics. The third situation comes from Egypt and its hegemony over the Arab League. Egypt, which is fearful over the distribution of the waters of the Nile, has a long-standing foreign policy of weakening Ethiopia by supporting Eritrea and Somalia. The former [Egyptian] UN Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali could not resist attending independence celebrations in Asmara, Eritrea, and yet sees the statehood of Somaliland running counter to Egypt’s foreign policy interests... Whatever the outcome of the quest for recognition, there is one thing that the people of Somaliland demand from the world: to be left alone so they can prosper. The people of Somaliland have maintained their ‘de facto’ existence as an independent country for 10 years now. They have accomplished tangible progress within that short period of time, which they had not seen in 30 years of union with Somalia. They are determined to stay on course and define their own political destiny into the future - with or without international recognition. Somaliland Forum has a website at: http://www.Somalilandforum.com