Peace Oasis Of Somaliland Craves For Recognition
The Scotsman - United Kingdom, June 21
THE policeman wears a starched white shirt and black beret as he directs traffic on the busy streets with a series of intricate hand signals and a whistle.
Around him swirls a parade of cars, patiently negotiating the potholes as well as the traffic cop. There is not a single gun in sight.
This is Somalia. Or rather this is Somaliland, a self-declared republic in the north-west that defies the traditional picture of Somalia as a land of guns, militiamen and bloody chaos.
That image certainly holds true in the south where aid workers cannot leave their compounds without armed protection and the land is divided up among eternally feuding clans.
But the former British colony of Somaliland has had peace and stability for five years since a 1995 civil war completed the emergent nation's birth pangs.
"We have saved millions from civil war. This is an oasis of peace in an area engulfed by conflict where we have got our act together," said the foreign minister, Mohamed Salah.
Somaliland declared independence in 1991 as the rest of Somalia, which was an Italian colony, descended into an orgy of bloody and brutal fighting that it is yet to emerge from.
With its capital in Hargeisa, the old British administrative centre, Somaliland craves international recognition, especially from its former colonial master.
But, despite high level visits to Italy and the United States, it has had no luck. Britain categorically states that it has no plans to recognise the country, though it has been governing itself in de facto independence for almost a decade.
During those years Somaliland's achievements have been considerable. Its airport is being extended, it prints its own freely convertible currency - the Somaliland shilling - and it has founded two universities.
Carrying weapons in public is strictly illegal and rigidly enforced and it is introducing its own curriculum into state-run schools.
In Hargeisa new buildings are springing up, many of them plush mansions being built by an emergent business elite capitalising on a modest economic boom.
All cars sport Somaliland licence plates and many bear bumper stickers proudly proclaiming "I love Somaliland".
But government officials are starting to worry that failure to get international recognition will stymie future development in the country.
Without it Somaliland cannot establish international links with foreign airlines or postal services.
Worst of all, it cannot access development funds from the World Bank or Internatonal Monetary Fund. Though the country, which is about the size of England, has few industries, government officials believe there is investment potential here.
It is currently reliant mainly on livestock exports from the vast herds tended by the 70 per cent of its 1.5 million population that are nomads.
But Somaliland, which is believed to have been the site of the Biblical land of Punt, also produces frankincense and may have mineral wealth.
The minister of planning, Ahmed Mohamed, believes that the country could have oil deposits off its Red Sea coast, and possible reserves of gold and coal beneath its scrubby desert landscape.
"Recognition is important not just for show but to trigger off development capital and access to funds and institutions that we can use to nurture industry and mining," he said.
However, the country faces a new and powerful threat to its de facto sovereignty in the shape of a peace conference called by the president of neighbouring Djibouti.
The summit has brought together elders from all over Somalia with the aim of creating a new national government in exile.
Though few faction leaders in Somalia have attended the meeting, it has got serious backing from the United Nations and European Union.
If it gets the international recognition that Somaliland craves, it will be a serious setback for the government in Hargeisa.
However, Somaliland is not likely to give up its hard-won independence very easily. It will fight if necessary, government ministers say.
"Djibouti is not a peace conference," said Ali Mohamed, the information minister.
"They are building a government we don't want, and that is a hostile action. They can't take our country from us, they will have to conquer us," he said.
But the threat of Djibouti has prompted a worrying crackdown in Somaliland. Anyone from the republic attending the conference has been declared a traitor and several have been arrested.
Side by side with this feeling of fear, is a tide of angry emotion against Britain, which is seen as having betrayed the territory it once ruled and whose borders exactly match the old colonial frontiers.
"The people are not satisfied with the British government's stance.
They think that the British government should be involved in the politics of Somaliland, not ignoring us," said the health minister, Dr Abdi Awdaahir.
Certainly the signs of the old British presence are everywhere. Cars drive on the left, while in the rest of Somalia they drive on the right, English and not Italian is widely spoken and red postboxes still dot the street corners.
Sitting in the village of Haraf, about ten miles from Hargeisa, Jama Ebrahim is in no doubt as to what the British should do.
The still sprightly 70-year-old served for five years in the old colonial Camel Corps and still fondly remembers the last British governor, Sir Gerald Reese, dubbed "Kama Kama" due to his stuttering speech.
"We want the British government to recognise Somaliland.
"They should do whatever they can do to help us," he said, sitting on the concrete steps of the coffee shop where he spends most of his days.
His lifelong friend and fellow Camel Corp veteran, Essa Osman, 75, agrees.
"Kama Kama built our airport and our hospital. We have looked after these things while Somalia is in ruins.
"We deserve help," Mr Osman said.
____________
Identity Forged By Colonialism
THE former colonial territory of the British Somaliland protectorate became a de facto independent nation in 1991. No foreign government recognises it.
A sense of national identity was forged during the British colonial experience and during decades of resistance to southern domination.
The population is around three million. The capital is Hargeisa, with a population of around 700,000.
Other towns are Berbera - the main port - Burao, Erigavo and Las-canood.
Somalis of Somaliland are united by language, culture, Islamic religion and tradition primarily based on pastoral nomadism. They share ethnicity with their neighbours in the Horn of Africa: Oromos, Afar and Rendille.
Somaliland is, economically, one of the world's least developed countries and its economic performance is heavily dependent on the regional prices of livestock. Its natural resources have been listed as: "Sun, Sand and Somalis". |
