Although it has been almost completely ignored in the Middle East (thought not in Europe and US), the Northern, formerly British part of Somaliland proclaimed itself the independent Republic of Somaliland in May 1991. While southern Somalia has continued to be torn by civil war and has sought through five reconciliation conferences to put itself back together again, the long-dissident northern region ( Somaliland ) has set off on its own.
Somalilander insist that they have not " seceded", since their independence was granted by Britain prior to their adherence to the union of northern and southern Somalia in 1960, and thus they also are not violating the AU " African Unity " principal that colonial boundaries are sacrosanct. They were a British controlled, separate from the Italian-colony-south.
Somaliland contains more resources than the southern Somalia, including some oil, and Berbera is one of the best harbors on the Red Sea, coveted in the past by both the Soviet and US fleets. Somaliland, after years of civil war with the southern-dominated regime of Siad Barre, has come through the war intact and with an internal stability not matched in the still-troubled southern Somalia. At this point, no foreign government has recognized the “Republic of Somaliland", and Arab League officials have expressed their hope that Somali unity will be restored. But “Somaliland " seems in no hurry. Even without recognition, it has begun to forge links with the outside world, with two airline, money and new passports. Its President has made a tour of European countries including England. One of my friends in Hargeisa “Dr. Shiine “told the Estimate that “We may become the Taiwan of Africa "—with trade and other links but without formal political recognition.
The African Unity (AU) has always adhered tot the principle that colonial boundaries must not be tampered with. Supporters of the new “Republic of Somaliland " say that their " reproclamaiton" of their independence does not violate the AU principle, because they were a separate British Controlled which, after independence freely united with the former Italian colony to create the Republic of Somalia. After years of southern domination, they insist, they have merely reasserted their original independence. We not secession we reasserted the original independence.
In Fact, the Somali people have long been scattered across various international boundaries. The five-pointed star on the flag of the Republic of Somalia represented Italian, British and French Somaliland (the latter now independent as Djibouti), plus Somali -occupied regions in north-eastern Kenya "NFD" and in the Fifth region of Ethiopia. In the late 1970s Somalia fought a war with Ethiopia over the region. But today the Republic of Somalia is not an irredentist state trying to annex other Somali territories, but a remnant of a state trying to hold itself together. Its potentially richest region (devastated by years of civil war), the Former British Somaliland in the North, has declared its independence as the Republic of Somaliland. The south has yet to successfully bring its own internal conflicts under control, and has done nothing to counter the Somaliland declaration of independence.
Although Somalis are proud of their heritage and speak of brotherhood with other Somalis. The heritage of the long rule of Siad Barre (1969-1991) left the country deeply divided along tribal and clan lines. Somaliland is the heartland of Isaaq, Gadabiirsi, Dhulbahante, Warsangali, Essa and number of smaller clans also live in Somaliland.
The coastal ports of Somaliland attracted European attention in the late 19th century, and were also coveted by Ethiopia and, for a grief period in the 1870s, by Egypt. By the 1850s France was already gaining ground in what is now Djibouti. Italy having planted itself in Eritrea began to acquire Somali Territory in 1889. In the 1890s Britain and Italy delineated the frontiers of British and Italian Somaliland, and the latter’s frontier with British Kenya.
During World War II, Italian forces invaded British Somaliland in 1940, but by May 1941 British colonial forces had retaken not only British Somaliland but had occupied the Italian sector as well. After the war the British considered uniting the two regions but the United Nations chose to place the Italian sector under Trusteeship to Italy for 10 years beginning in 1949 with UN supervision to oversee preparation for independence. The British meanwhile encouraged the growth of nationalist organizations and parties in the Somaliland, though many of these had tribal affiliations.
Britain expected and encouraged the nation that British and Italian Somaliland would unite on independence, and accordingly granted independence to Somaliland June 26, 1960. On July 1, with the independence of the Italian Trust Territory, The unification of the two regions was proclaimed. The legislative bodies of the two former colonies merged to create the new Somali Parliament in Mogadishu, The southern capital become the national capitol; southern leaders held the major posts in the new government, and the majority of seats in Parliament. The North (Somaliland) acquiesced this. But there were many differences from the beginning: the dominance of Italian as a second language in the south, versus English in the North; the differing political and economic systems of the two former colonies. Efforts to bring the Somalis of neighboring countries into the nation helped downplay the divisions initially. In 1969 the elected government was toppled by a coup led by officers including Siad Barre. Over the more then 20 years which followed, Siad consolidated power in his own clan and its allies, naming many of his own in-laws to key posts. Northerners were increasingly alienated.
SNM…………..
In 1981 the Isaaq created the Somali National Movement (SNM), which would lead the fight against Siad Barre in the North and become the core of the new provisional government of Somaliland. SNM had five leaders in its 10 years of existence, a sign of its internal democracy. The first Chairman, Mohamed Jimaleh, Second Yusuf Ali Sheikh Madar, the third Abdulqadir Kosar, seized power in a military coup and was assassinated after 10 months in Hawiye land, but in the meantime he builds up the military organization which would eventually fight the Siad’s government to a standstill. On his death of Kosaar the SNM elected Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud " Silaanyo" and held that post for six years. He was replaced last year by Abdulrahman Ahmed Ali " tuur ".
The SNM was a mixture of left radical, and Westernized nationalists, unity by their opposition to Siad Barre and, now by their commitment to separation of the north from the south. The SNM fought Siad Barre for a decade and in 1988 began making major gains, and holding the northern capital of Hargeisa against heavy air attacks by government forces. The northern cities were devastated in this period, but increasingly the SNM was able to control the countryside. In the last moths of 1990 and the beginning of 1991, as Siad Barre kits his last tenuous grasp of power, the SNM was able to consolidate its control in the north. On January 27 in 1991, Siad Barre fled Mogadishu as another rebel group the United Somali Congress (USC), took the city. As the USC struggled to consolidate power in the south, it announced an interim government including a northerner as Prime Minster. But the SNM had not been consulted in advance and simply preceded with its own affairs. In May a Congress was called in Burao, bringing the SNM Central Committee together with the leading clans of the north: besides the Isaaq, the Dhulbahante, Gadabirsi, Warsangali and Essa. This Congress declared May 17 that the Act of Union had been rescinded and that the Republic of Somaliland had reclaimed its independence, on May 18 1991.
ANIIS ABDILLAHI ESSA
WASHINGTON DC…USA
