Somaliland
eager to prove its worth as independent state
HARGEISA, Somalia (Agence
France-Presse) — The breakaway Republic of Somaliland, whose leader, Mohammed
Ibrahim Egal, died last week while undergoing medical treatment in South Africa,
proclaimed its independence almost 11 years ago but has never been recognized by
the international community.
A former British protectorate, it united with the
Italian colony to the south in 1960 to form the independent Republic of Somalia.
But it broke away from the rest of Somalia in June 1991, five months after the
overthrow of Gen. Mohammed Siad Barre, who seized power in a 1969 coup.
The secession was engineered by the head of the
Somali National Movement (SNM), Abdurahman Ahmed Ali Tour. The SNM, formed in
1981, was the first armed movement to oppose Gen. Siad Barre's dictatorship.
Somaliland today has been spared the strife that
afflicts the rest of Somalia, where clan leaders are engaged in bloody power
struggles.
More than 3,000 people gathered Monday in Berbera,
a port town on the Gulf of Aden 96 miles northeast of Hargeisa, to bury Mr. Egal,
73, who died after bowel surgery at a military hospital in Pretoria. Mr. Egal,
who came to power in 1993, was succeeded by his vice president, Dahir Riyale
Kahin, who promised to bring international recognition and continued stability
to the breakaway Horn of Africa country.
In an interview with AFP late Monday night, Mr.
Kahin said that there would be no sudden moves, and that he would continue Mr.
Egal's path. Gaining international recognition for Somaliland and ensuring its
continued security will be his two main goals, he stressed.
Fears in the international community that
Somaliland would fall into chaos after Mr. Egal's death had proved groundless,
Mr. Kahin said. "In fact, we have shown that we have applied the peace and
governance that [Mr. Egal] instituted," he said.
"Nothing bad happened in Somaliland after his
death. I hope the international community will realize that we are not a fragile
state," he said.
"We are a real state that [is ruled by] a
constitution. Not many African countries can do what we have done. We ask for
recognition from the international community for this."
Mr. Kahin also said Somaliland voters would go to
the polls for municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections within eight
months. "We will have municipal elections and then parliamentary or
presidential elections — I have not decided in which order these will be —
in the next eight months," he said.
He took the oath of office hours after the Mr.
Egal's death and was unanimously endorsed Friday night at an emergency meeting
of the councils of elders and ministers, as well as parliament.
A member of the Gardabusi clan predominant in
western Somaliland, Mr. Kahin had been vice president since 1997, when
Somaliland adopted a provisional constitution. He was a high-ranking military
officer in Somalia's Siad Barre regime.
In conformity with his last wishes, the late
leader was buried alongside his father, Haji Ibrahim Egal, a wealthy
businessman. The official mourning period for Mr. Egal ends tomorrow.
At the burial, Sheik Mohammed Sheik Sufi, minister
of religion in the breakaway republic, led a Muslim prayer service that was also
attended by an Ethiopian delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Tekeda
Alemu.
"Mr. Egal, a great statesman, contributed to
peace and stability in this subregion these last 11 years," Mr. Alemu said.
"We are saddened by his passing, but we take consolation in the fact that
what he has left behind is an institution that has the capacity to protect the
peace and stability of Somaliland.
"That has enormous implications for the
subregion and particularly for Ethiopia," Mr. Alemu said.
Berbera is a vital outlet to the sea for Ethiopia,
landlocked since Eritrea declared independence in 1993. Port fees from Ethiopia
are Somaliland's primary source of revenue. The port, however, is virtually
abandoned after successive embargoes in February 1998 and September 2000 imposed
by Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf emirates on the import of live animals to
prevent the spread of Rift Valley fever.
Somaliland's 1997 constitution was ratified by a
referendum in May last year — a vote in which the inhabitants implicitly
ratified independence by more than 97 percent. But the republic, which has a
government, police force, penal code, currency and customs agency, is not
recognized by the international community and is ineligible for foreign aid.
Officially, the refusal to recognize Somaliland is
rooted in the principle, espoused by the Organization of African Unity's
charter, of the inviolability of colonial borders.
More pragmatically, "everybody is afraid of a
proliferation of ministates that cannot sustain themselves and whose
establishment could lead to a host of border disputes," said a Somalia
expert based in Nairobi.
Somalia also comprises two other states: Puntland
in the northeast, which declared itself autonomous in 1998, and the State of
Southwest Somalia, declared in March this year by the Rahanwein Resistance Army.
Semidesert Somaliland borders Djibouti and
Ethiopia, with a coastline on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
The population of about 3 million, dominated by
the Issak clan, lives mainly from commerce and agriculture. About 200,000 people
live in the capital, Hargeisa.
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