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Somaliland Farmers Are Allowed Back Into The Fold

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HARGEISA, 9 October 2009 (Somalilandpress) – Millions of Muslims across the Middle East slaughtered sheep to celebrate the Eid feast at the end of Ramadan. Many of those animals were probably raised here, on the dusty plains of Somaliland, growing fat on the many green pastures hidden in the rugged landscape.

(Cattle dealers, such as Mohamed Ismail, receive 90 per cent of their business from the Middle East. Tim Freccia for The National)

Livestock rearing is a way of life in the Horn of Africa and nomadic Somalis have practised it for centuries. Here in Somaliland, the northern breakaway region of Somalia, the economy thrives on the sale of sheep, goats and cattle.
“Livestock is the backbone of our economy,” said Oumer Yusef Booh, the dean of economics at the University of Hargeisa in the Somaliland capital. “During Ramadan we sell over a million sheep to the Middle East in one month.”

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The Middle East, including the UAE, accounts for 90 per cent of Somaliland livestock sales. The rest is exported to the neighbouring countries of Ethiopia and Djibouti. Saudi Arabia, once a large trading partner with Somaliland, has had an embargo on Somaliland livestock for the past 10 years, which crippled the economy of this fledgling nation.

Saudi officials have said the reason for the ban, which began in 1998, is that animals from Somaliland could be infected with Rift Valley fever, a mosquito-borne virus that kills livestock and humans. But analysts in Somaliland suspect the motive purely political.

A strong, united Somalia is seen by Arab states as a counterweight to regional rival Ethiopia, which has poor relations with the Arab world. Moreover, Arab countries worry that recognising a breakaway state could set a precedent for other areas in the region with aspirations for independence.

In 1991, as Somalia plunged into a civil war that is still ongoing, Somaliland seceded from its union with greater Somalia. In the last two decades, Somalilanders have managed to build government institutions and security forces with little help from the international community, which does not recognise Somaliland’s independence.

The ironic result is that a beacon of stability in the troubled Horn of Africa is an unrecognised state. The Arab league along with most of the international community wants a strong, united Somalia and continues to back the beleaguered government in Mogadishu.

( The Middle East, including the UAE, accounts for 90 per cent of Somaliland livestock sales. Tim Freccia for The National)

“When Saudi Arabia banned our livestock, it was politically motivated,” Mr Booh said. “The Arab states don’t want Somaliland to be independent. The Rift Valley fever was just an excuse. It was in Kenya but not in Somaliland.”
Because of its unrecognised status, Somaliland receives no direct aid from the international community.

Aside from its livestock, the country has little else to export. It is too dry for agriculture and there is but a small, underdeveloped commercial fishing industry in the Gulf of Aden. A handful of Somalilanders are involved in the growing trade of frankincense, a fragrant resin obtained from the Boswellia trees of Somaliland. But livestock remains king.

Somaliland exports two million sheep per year, mostly to the UAE, Yemen and neighbouring countries, according to the government. Another 250,000 head of cattle and camels are sold from Somaliland. The exports are estimated to be worth around US$250 million (Dh920m).

Recently there have been signs of a thaw in Somaliland’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. Earlier this year, the Somaliland government and Saudi investors completed a livestock quarantine station in the port city of Berbera that will allow officials to screen animals for disease before being exported.

“The problem was a lack of quarantine,” Dahir Riyale Kahin, the president of Somaliland, said in an interview. “We have made a good quarantine in Berbera. We have high hopes that before the Haj, we will be shipping to Saudi Arabia.”

In 2007, Said Suleiman al Jabiry, a Saudi investor who built the US$5 million (Dh18.3m) quarantine in Somaliland, signed a deal with the government giving him exclusive rights to all the country’s livestock at a fixed price.

Somaliland traders, outraged at what they called a monopoly, began smuggling their animals out of discreet ports to find better prices on the open market. The government, losing customs and excise revenue, eventually opened up the market for competition last year.

( Baraud Kahin has been a camel trader for seven years and calls livestock trading ‘the greatest business in Somaliland’. Tim Freccia for The National)

In a dusty, windswept field on the outskirts of Hargeisa, traders meet each morning to buy and sell livestock. Nomadic herders with ochre-coloured hair and red robes travel to the city with long lines of camels and sheep.

“This is the greatest business in Somaliland,” he said. “It is how we survive.”

Mohamed Muhamed, a sheep dealer, said the time between Ramadan and the Haj is always good for business. During these months, he said he can move up to 50 sheep a day at $50 per head. The opening up of the Saudi market will be great for business, he said.

“It was a political thing with the Arabs, but now it is OK,” he said. “Business will be good this season.”

By: Matt Brown, Foreign Correspondent
Source: TheNational

Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

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HARGEISA, 9 October 2009 (Somalilandpress) – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama’s name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.

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“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”

The committee said it attached special importance to Obama’s vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons.

“Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play,” the committee said.

Record number of nominations

Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson won in 1919. Former President Jimmy Carter won the award in 2002, while former Vice President Al Gore shared the 2007 prize with the U.N. panel on climate change.

The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year’s prize.

In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.”

Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, he said the peace prize should be given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Sweden and Norway were united under the same crown at the time of Nobel’s death.

The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel’s guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change.

Source: MSNBC

Britain calls for sanctions against Eritrea.

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UNITED NATIONS — Britain called Thursday for U.N. sanctions against the tiny Red Sea nation of Eritrea for supplying weapons to opponents of the transitional government in nearby Somalia in violation of a U.N. arms embargo.

The United States, which warned in July that Eritrea could soon face sanctions unless it stops support for Somali extremists, said it was time for the international community to address the country’s destabilizing impact on Somalia and the region.

And Russia called on countries in the region not to allow mercenaries and arms into Somalia in violation of sanctions.

The comments at an open meeting of the U.N. Security Council indicated growing interest in punishing Eritrea, which has rejected accusations — including by the Security Council — that it supplied weapons to Islamist opponents of Somalia’s Western-backed transitional government.

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador John Sawers said his government is concerned that the latest report by U.N. experts monitoring the arms embargo included evidence that Eritrea provided support to opponents of the Somali government.

“Leaders of the African Union have requested the Security Council to impose sanctions against Eritrea in response,” he said.

“The council will need to give serious consideration to the African Union’s requests over the coming weeks,” Sawers said, adding that Britain “stands ready to support such action.”

In July, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice renewed U.S. allegations that Eritrea is “arming, supporting and funding” extremists including al-Shabab, and could soon face sanctions unless it stops. The Islamist militia group was designated a terrorist group by Washington in 2008 and has been trying to topple the transitional government.

U.S. deputy ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo told the council Thursday that “al-Shabab and other extremist groups, fueled by outside actors, have caused numerous deaths and violated the rights of Somali citizens with impunity — including by assaulting, detaining, and illegally arresting civilians.”

“It is time for the international community to consider ways to address Eritrea’s destabilizing impact on Somalia and the region,” DiCarlo said.

Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Konstantin Dolgov said the Somali government needs support from the leaders of neighboring countries.

“We call upon the states of the region not to allow the flow of foreign mercenaries and arms into Somalia in violation of the relevant sanctions regime introduced by the Security Council,” he said. “We believe that there is a need to take additional steps to strengthen this regime.”

The council was meeting to discuss a report by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon which said the government has successfully rebuffed threats from extremist forces to overthrow it. But he said the government still faces many challenges, first and foremost dealing with widespread insecurity and a recent upsurge in attacks, assassinations and abductions.

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other, plunging the country into chaos and anarchy.

The fragile U.N.-backed government and an undermanned, poorly resourced African Union peacekeeping force have struggled to defend government buildings, the port and airport in the capital, Mogadishu — most recently rebuffing an offensive by Al-Shabab and the allied Islamic Party.

U.N. political chief B. Lynn Pascoe reported “slow but notable progress towards stability.”

But he said the humanitarian situation has “worsened dramatically” due to intensified fighting in Mogadishu, growing insecurity in much of central and southern Somalia, and deepening drought.

The result is that some 3.7 million people — 50 percent of Somalia’s population — need humanitarian aid, he said.

Pascoe cautioned peace and stability will take time and “national and external spoilers must be neutralized.”

“Targeted sanctions can be one effective way to deal with the spoilers,” he said.

Speaking last, Somalia’s U.N. Ambassador Elmi Ahmed Duale said: “We also wish … that the Security Council would apply and enforce sanctions against all spoilers, whether individuals, entities, or country, or countries.”

Source: AP, Oct 09, 2009

Somaliland stability 'under threat'.

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Somaliland has been hailed as a beacon of stability in the troubled Horn of Africa region since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991. But BBC Africa analyst Mary Harper reports that some experts now believe the self-declared republic is at crisis point.

Michael Walls – co-coordinator of the international election observer mission to Somaliland – has issued a report bemoaning the repeated postponement of the presidential election.

In his report for the Chatham House think-tank, he says that if the situation is not resolved, the territory will inevitably lose many of the gains it has made since breaking away from Somalia.

Somaliland’s stability has surprised many people. Although no country has recognised its independent status, it has managed to avoid many of the problems encountered by its neighbours.

This is partly because it has developed a unique hybrid system of government.

A traditional house of elders or “guurti” is combined with other more modern institutions. There is a limited system of democracy, whereby only three political parties are allowed to exist.

This mixture of the modern and the traditional has been a largely effective way of governing. But recent developments put all this at risk.

“With international attention focused on piracy off the Puntland coast, the rise of militant Islam in southern Somalia, and the threat this is perceived to represent to international security and global terrorism, the potential for deterioration in Somaliland must surely be cause for concern,” says Mr Walls.

The current tension in Somaliland centres on the postponement of the presidential election, which was due to have been held on 27 September.

This is not the first time the vote has been delayed – it has been postponed at least three times since last year.

President Dahir Riyale Kahin’s term in office – which was meant to run out in May 2008 – has been extended several times.

It is currently due to expire on 29 October, and it is unclear what will happen after that.

Fist-fight

This uncertainty has led to increased concern about Somaliland in the international community, and a flare-up of political animosity within the territory.

In September, for example, there was a fist-fight in parliament during discussions about a possible impeachment of the president. One MP is even reported to have drawn a gun, although no shots were fired.

Mr Walls says one of the main reasons for the repeated postponement of the polls is what he has described as the incompetence of the national electoral commission.

“Fears are widespread that the electoral commissioners will find themselves incapable of providing the organisation required for a successful presidential election,” he says.

“Even if an election date was agreed, the commission wouldn’t be able to organise the vote.”

Another problem has been the inability of Somaliland’s three political parties to agree on a voters’ register.

The previous presidential election in April 2003 was held without a register. But as President Riyale won by the narrowest of margins – just 80 votes – it was widely agreed that a more robust system was required to help avoid future problems.

The compilation of a voters’ register has been fraught with difficulty.

“The process has been marred by astonishingly widespread fraud and mismanagement”, says Mr Walls.

More than half of those who registered did so without providing a readable fingerprint. Many people were registered without being photographed – instead, they brought their own pictures, which were held up in front of a camera and photographed.

There has been no widespread population count in Somaliland since the 1970s, and there is great sensitivity about the compilation of a new voters’ register because it is likely to provide a different picture of the region, altering the balance of power between the clans.

This could have serious political implications, altering voting patterns and possibly the outcome of elections.

Animosity remains

The government of Somaliland insists there is no serious cause for concern about the political situation.

“There is no crisis in Somaliland. I accept there are some problems but these are mainly caused by the lack of economic development,” says Adam Musse Jibril, Somaliland’s representative in the UK.

Mr Jibril said people had to trust the territory’s record of resolving political disputes.

“Somaliland has been able to achieve this by combining modern democratic systems with our traditional value systems, where people sit under a tree to talk, argue, and eventually reach a consensus,” he says.

But political animosity remains. Mohamed Omar of the opposition Kulmiye party says he does not believe the government will honour a memorandum of understanding recently agreed on a possible way out of the political impasse.

Mr Walls says it is not too late for Somaliland. But he says a presidential election must be held as soon as possible.

“The dangers of instability and authoritarianism characteristic of a number of Somaliland’s neighbours can still be averted, but the traditions of dialogue still urgently need to be reactivated”, he says.

Source: BBC, Oct 08, 2009

High hopes for Saudi-Syrian summit.

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The sight of an Arab leader clambering out of an aircraft to begin a two-day official visit to another Arab country does not normally stir much excitement.

But the long-awaited appearance of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in the Syrian capital, Damascus, was one of those rare events that clearly flags the arrival of changing times, and raises hopes of better ones.

The two countries have played leading roles on opposite sides of the sharp rift that has divided the Arab World in recent years, at odds over every one of the region’s many intractable and interlinked problems.

For the past three decades, Syria has had a close and solid strategic relationship with non-Arab Iran, seen by the Saudis as a malign regional influence and an instigator of tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

Saudi Arabia, by contrast, is one of Washington’s staunchest allies in the Middle East, and a bastion of Sunni conservativism.

After several years of growing tension, the rupture between Damascus and Riyadh was sealed in 2005 with the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, a Saudi citizen and political protege of the king.

Syria was widely blamed, though it denied responsibility.

Lebanese expectant

Since then, no arena has been more obviously vulnerable to the vagaries and tensions of the Saudi-Syrian relationship than Lebanon, where Syria backs the Iranian-supported Hezbollah and its opposition allies, while the Saudis are deeply involved with the pro-Western coalition now headed by Hariri’s son and political heir, Saad.

Currently Prime Minister-designate, Saad Hariri, has for nearly four months been striving to put together a national unity government following legislative elections in June, in which his coalition came out narrowly ahead of Hezbollah and its opposition allies.

Lebanese political and media circles are attaching huge significance to the Saudi monarch’s visit to Syria.

There is a widespread belief that a new Saudi-Syrian understanding will encourage the rapid formation of the new Lebanese government, with predictions that it could happen as early as the end of next week.

The assumption is that King Abdullah would not have gone to Syria unless the rapprochement process had not already made a lot of headway, and the trip itself is clearly expected to consolidate and boost that process further.

Peace process

The reconciliation moves began with a positive encounter at the Arab Economic Summit in Kuwait in January, followed by a mini-summit with Egypt in Riyadh in March.
By July, the Saudis had decided to send an ambassador back to Damascus after a year-long absence.

And late last month, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to Jeddah, after much 11th-hour hesitation, to attend the inauguration of the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, holding a long, informal meeting with the monarch.
An entente between these two key players could clearly have beneficial implications for many of the region’s crises, though the impact might not be as immediately felt as it is expected to be in Beirut.

As in Lebanon, the two have been backing different sides in the dispute between Palestinian factions, with the Syrians supporting and hosting Hamas and other militant groups opposed to the US-backed peace process, and the Saudis backing the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Even if the Saudi-Syrian rapprochement gains further ground, nobody really expects the Syrians to break with their Iranian allies.

A Saudi-Syrian rapprochement could clearly encourage the continuing effort to bring about inter-Palestinian reconciliation, as a necessary precursor to any revival of serious peace moves with Israel.

Egypt is driving the Palestinian entente process and hopes to conclude it in Cairo on 26 October.

But if Syria remained out in the cold and motivated to spoil, the prospects for an accord being concluded successfully would be slight.

A similar agreement between the Palestinians, sponsored by the Saudis at the height of their breach with Damascus two years ago, was signed but rapidly went up in flames.

US overtures

As well as generally benefitting the regional peace process, there are also hopes that a Saudi-Syrian understanding would impact positively on the general Arab position, which has been in disarray in recent years.

An Arab peace plan engineered by the Saudis was approved at a summit in Beirut in 2002, but has been left by the wayside because (among other obstacles) the Arabs lacked the collective will to push it forward.

Now it is back on the table, and Arab commentators have expressed optimism that entente between Riyadh and Damascus could help invigorate the pan-Arab role.

There is also speculation that the Saudis might build on this progress to tackle another of the knots that is preventing the Arabs from taking muscular collective positions – the coolness between Syria and that other major Arab player, Egypt.

Even if the Saudi-Syrian rapprochement gains further ground, nobody really expects the Syrians to break with their Iranian allies.

But that contradiction, which has survived for so long and often has not been a particular problem in inter-Arab affairs, might diminish in significance should the Iranians continue to respond positively to Western concerns over their nuclear programme, following the relatively positive outcome of last week’s seven-party talks in Geneva.

Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran are also of course immediate neighbours to that other land of unresolved crisis, Iraq.

The US, bent on drawing down their forces there and focusing more heavily on Afghanistan, is eager to foster a spirit of cooperation and non-interference by Iraq’s neighbours.

They also include Nato-ally Turkey, which has been actively involved in encouraging the Saudi-Syrian rapprochement.

The Syrians have been loudly accused by the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, of permitting Islamist militants to cross the border and carry out bomb attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere – a charge Damascus denies.

Behind the reconciliation moves, and explaining their timing, is the vast background sea-change that is affecting the region as the US shifts gear from the divisive, confrontational policies of George W Bush to the more conciliatory approach adopted by Barack Obama.

Washington itself has been making overtures to both Damascus and Tehran, providing a propitious climate for the Saudi opening to Syria.
source:bbc

Pirates hit navy ship 'in error'

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A group of Somali pirates has been captured after attacking a French navy ship by mistake, apparently thinking it was a harmless cargo vessel.

French military spokesman Admiral Christophe Prazuck said the pirates attacked in skiffs late at night some 500km (310 miles) off the Somali coast.

But the command and supply ship, the Somme, repelled the attack and chased the pirates, capturing five of them.

Dozens of international warships fight piracy in Somalia’s lawless waters.

The country has had no effective central government since 1991, leading to a complete breakdown of law and order, and pirates operate off the coast almost with impunity.

Admiral Prazuck told French TV station La Chaine Info the pirates seemed to be surprised that the navy ship fought back.

“Once they realised they were facing a ship that was responding and was heading towards them, they stopped shooting and attempted to flee,” he said.

“The Somme gave chase and intercepted one of the pirates’ boats. All the weapons had apparently been tossed into the sea and the suspected pirates are now being held on board the Somme.”

About two dozen ships from European Union nations, including Britain, France, Germany and Italy, patrol the waters off Somalia – an area of about two million square miles.

Although the international naval forces have stepped up patrols in the Gulf of Aden this year, relatively few of the pirates detained have faced trial because of the legal complexities involved.

BBC

October 7, 2009

Somaliland Expands its Petroleum Licensing Round Acreage

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HARGEISA, 6 October 2009 (Somalilandpress) – The Somaliland Ministry of Water and Mineral Resources (Ministry) announced today that it will add 6,221 square kilometers of onshore acreage in block SL3 to their petroleum licensing round, closing in December 2009.

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The bid round now includes nine concession blocks comprised of more than 95,845 square kilometers of onshore and offshore areas. The deadline for final submission of bids is December 15, 2009 and concessions will be awarded on March 15, 2010.

Seismic, aeromagnetic data and interpretive datasets over the region are available from TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company (TGS). The information on bid round application is also available through TGS.

Contacts

Minister of Water and Mineral Resources
Republic of Somaliland
Mr. Qasim Sh. Yusuf Ibrahim, + 252 2528766
MWNR.info@gmail.com

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Source: Business Wire

Book Review: After University, What Next?

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HARGEISA, 5 October 2009 (Somalilandpress) – I remember a morning where the voices of graduates are yet to break the silent of the day. It is a moment of shining for those heroes who spent a good time of their life in the university. I remember a morning that every one of us headed for the university where the ceremony took place. The scene set place (University of Hargeisa) is amazing , music band-boys plays out through out the day with in front of dressed graduates. Time after time the ceremony is getting interested. That day is meticulously arranged and has special memories to our lives.

But After University, What Next?

You have reached an important goal by hard work and perseverance. You have put in a great deal of work and effort to get to this point. You’re finally in the real world. You’ve graduated, walked across the stage and climbed down from the stairs of the academy, leading you right into the real world. You face a new chapter in your life now.

As young graduates we all have a pragmatic view in the real world outside university, whether we are thinking of starting work, taking a fissure year or staying on for a further degree. This book provides genuineness, guidance and counsel for any one preparing for life after university.

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Read this book, a different book that is unique. A book that was inspiring every one expected to work, to be honest, to be fair and to strive in pursuit of knowledge and fight ignorance, a book that is discouraged idleness and laziness. The book offer volunteer opportunities to the graduates who wish to build on a set of skills to suit their education.

For the last one year I was involved participating Hargeisa Readers Clubs reading ceremonies, where eventually the Club exhibit book reviews to the youth in Hargeisa so as to become a source of motivation to those who have the appetite to read more and bookworms. Hargeisa Readers Club has not only provided reading opportunities for their young bookish members, but can also be a great asset to Somaliland people as a whole. I admire their empowering the youth in Hargeisa through reading skills allied with how to translate and present the books.

Participating these reading ceremonies brought me to read lots of self-help books, and make review for those who have not seen it. What you see in this review article is a piece of summary about the book called After University, What Next?

The writer of the book enlightens deeply that it is tragedy for generations who are living without sense of purpose, mission and goals. As the wise words of the writer, the writer went around asks young people and adults what it is they are living their lives for, you will unfortunately discover that possibly over 90% are living simply because they were born. They go to school or university not for any purpose but because every other young and adults in the town goes to school or university. There after, they look for a job simply because all people look for a job after studies. If they can, they buy a car, rent a house and trade between Somaliland and Dubai. Those people lack the potent vision to live the rest of their lives.
The problem with today’s graduates is that they do not want to get their lives at risk to turn vividly true their future ambitions. Many have been overprotected by their selves and don’t like to be a role model for generations to come. Graduates must keep in mind that there are so many challenges ahead of them. The whole world wants for us because we have fresh minds that can began personal reforms to accomplish social reform.

With regards to the years in the university, most students dream only for the completion of their first degree, but lack the idea of having what they are doing after university. Two question echoes your ears if you become a graduate in Hargeisa. The first question is do you get a job or aren’t you married?. Job opportunities are one of the delightful stories chanting always the graduates in Hargeisa. Graduates have a hard time in Somaliland job markets and affected by poor employment prospects due to the stagnant or slothful economies that are unable to generate enough job opportunities to absorb the young people qualifying from institutions of learning every year.

While reading newspapers every day is a pushy work for young graduates in search of job opportunity and life better outside university. Others travel to abroad to prepare post-graduate at different university in the world especially, Uganda, India, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Last but not least, I. thought that we are a generation in need role models that is living with us. Lack of powerful vision to live by our youth, without goals and desires resulted the low achievement of most of our young Somali Landers.

Our motto is “ BE ROLE MODEL FOR GENERATIONS TO COME”

The Book:

Title: After University, What Next?
Author: Ambrose Kabuki Mukiibi
Nationality: Uganda
Published by: Human Potential Publications LTD, 2003
Pages: 271


Written by: Farhan Abdi Suleiman (oday)

Hope as Somaliland opts for dialogue.

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Political compromise in Somaliland brokered by international donors has helped avert violence but information on the ground point to a shaky truce that can break any time.

A political stalemate between President Dahir Rayale Kahin and the opposition following the postponement of presidential elections scheduled for September 27, had threatened to plunge the self-declared state into turmoil.

Recently, the three political parties agreed on a six-point programme to help save the country from strife, given that the opposition had threatened to boycott the elections and seek other means of removing the president from power, while the incumbent had earlier vowed to push on with elections even without a voter-register.

The six areas of agreement include changes in the National Electoral Commission; solving technical problems that had impeded voter-registration; the date of elections to be set by a reconstituted electoral commission and technical experts rather than politicians; the three political parties to work together to avoid divisive politics; the pending elections and future elections to be based on voter-registration; and the three political parties to issue a joint statement calling for unity and patriotism.

Subsequently, on September 22, the House of Elders commonly known as Guurti voted to extend the life of the current government for the sake of the country.

Somaliland, which unilaterally declared its independence in 1991 following the collapse of Siad Bare’s government, held successful multi-party presidential elections in 2003 and parliamentary elections in 2005.

But subsequently, the country — that is yet to receive international recognition — has been unable to hold elections.

By law, only three parties are registered: the incumbent’s United Democratic Peoples’ Party, the main opposition party Kulmiye, led by veteran politician, Ahmed Mahamoud Silanyo, and the Party for Justice and Welfare.

Analysts were hoping that orderly and democratic presidential elections would strengthen its quest for global recognition, given the escalating chaos in the southern region.

Yet, the presidential elections were postponed in 2007 and again in 2008 due to what officials called technical problems, including inadequate voter registration.

The poll was then set to be held before April 6, 2009, following a civil registration process.

But again, the 2009 elections have been repeatedly delayed for numerous reasons but particularly due to problems in the voter registration process.

By African standards, the voter-registration process in Somaliland was one of the most advanced in the continent.

It included a biometric system with a database registering fingerprints, photographs and personal details.

But after the October 2008 bombing by Al Shabaab, the foreign staff in charge of running the computer equipment for the registration pulled out, severely delaying the registration process.

But though the truce has cool political temperatures, the main worry is whether it will hold for long given the high tensions that were brought about by the election fever and accusations of planned malpractices.

According to observers The EastAfrican spoke to, the situation in Somaliland remains fluid.

But one thing that stands out is that the hitherto suppressed media has played a key role by continuously putting politicians under pressure to put the survival of the country before their own political survival.

Source: The Eastafrican

Somaliland’s road to democracy is a lesson for US in its Somalia quest

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Last week, Al-shabab, Islamist youth group of Somalis, with ties to Al Qaeda executed a well planned attack with twin truck explosions, at African Union peacekeeping force base in Mogadishu, killing at least 22 people. Among the dead, the deputy commander of AU force, deputy police Chief of Somalia, and 17 Burundian soldiers.

Al-Shabab claimed that they were retaliating against the recent US raid that killed Saleh Nabhan, alleged mastermind behind the 2002 bombings of a Israeli hotel in Kenya. But the attack was part ofa total war the hard-line Islamists are waging against the weak US backed Sheikh Sharif Ahmed’s government and the AU forces that is protecting his government

As the Obama administration tries to re-engage the ut terly failed state of Somalia, in order to deny a safe haven for Al Qaeda affiliate groups to plot against American interest in the region , or even on American soil. There are lessons to be borrowed from the northerly part of Somalia—Somaliland’s (which had never been involved any US, UN, and African Union led military intervention) experience and the process it established a fledging, secular Muslim democratic state from scratch, without massive aid and bloated UN bureaucracy.

Unlike the feuding groups (clans and sub-clans) fighting for power in Somalia, Somaliland proceeded with different path—that of true reconciliation, amnesty, and peace. Today, it has multi-party representative democracy, ill equipped and poorly paid, but a functioning police force, free market base economy, and it operates under the rule of law.

Since then, Somalilanders held several successful free and fair elections for president, legislature, and local governments. This week the leaders of the three political parties agreed on the schedule for the next presidential election, a course that will give Somaliland to have a more impressive democracy than most African and Middle Eastern countries, which enjoy US support a nd diplomatic relations.

Despite all these accomplishments, yet Somaliland remains unrecognized as independent free nation. Our own professional state department diplomats are pretending that it does not exist for political reasons.

America offers the best hope dealing with Somalia, and is best suited diplomatically to attend the unfinished business of Somalia in 90’s. Our secretary of state Madam Hillary Clinton will do our country and the world a big favor if she could come up a different strategy of defeating Al Qaeda affiliate groups in Somalia than the one the state is pursuing now, which reflects the realities on the ground

The current State department policy of backing Sheikh Sharif Ahmed’s government, which controls small pockets of Mogadishu—a city the size of district of Columbia, and with no popular support and legitimacy among ordinary Somalis, is not clearly working, and is not serving the national interest of US. And t he AU peacekeeping mission is not keeping peace and has become a cash cow for the Ugandan dictator to get cash and arms from America.

Obama administration would wise to avoid the past mistakes of the highly politicized UN practices—which followed policies that were proven to be failure and disastrous, and wasted billions of US aid on the ruins of South Somalia, propped up the warlords, brought the brutal Ethiopian occupation to the streets of Mogadishu, and created atmosphere where the Violent Al-shabab movement become the alternative leadership for the most vulnerable Somalis.

One radical and smart way to neutralize Al Qaeda infected groups in Somalia is to empower and reward indigenous Somalis who acted and behaved responsibly and brought peace and stability to their own people.

Somaliland, which has 760km coastline, is doing everything right and it can play significant role in helping US to combat extremism in the Horn of Africa as well as efforts to eliminate piracy in the Gulf of Aden—one the busiest shipping lines in the world. America and EU shou ld give Somaliland full diplomatic recognition. Doing so would make the region more stable, promote good governance, and will lead to the rest of Somalia to the path of genuine reconciliation and peace.

US should at least provide limited direct aid to Somaliland in the areas of police and coast guard training, education, health, and water. Aid that will have direct impact on the lives of its citizens and can be done without American soldiers on the ground. More Trade than aid will jump start the local economy and one way to do is United States to persuade the Saudis to lift the import ban of the Somali livestock for the coming Hajj Pilgrimage.

The Somaliland people and their political parties unequivocally are yearning for full independence and freedom and they want forge ties with US. The 3.5 million Somalilanders cannot tolerate anymore years of not knowing, what country they live, who they are and what the future holds for them. The warring ( Jihadists and warlords )) in Somalia—-and their backers in the UN as well as in the Arab world (which, by the way, did not promote American values)–have little choice, but to accept the only viable and sustainable solution which is independent and sovereign Somaliland, anything less would never work nor be just.

It is time President Obama and US Congress to do the right thing and accept the independence of Somaliland which stands the same great principles America was founded.

Muwaadin Cali

 

Ali Mohamed

President Somaliland Freedom foundation

Hargaysa, Somaliland

Email: aliadm@aol.com

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