Silanyo’s Clandestine Visit to Las Qoray: A Cause for Unity? By Ahmed Saeed Warsame

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Silanyo’s Clandestine Visit to Las Qoray: A Cause for Unity?
By Ahmed Saeed Warsame


“Dignity is not negotiable. Dignity is the honor of the family” Vartan Gregorian

Dignified visit of a statesman or derange and desperate stopover of a man who would do anything to appease his opponents and pretend to keep the unattainable dream of breaking-away alive at any cost? Silanyo’s visit to Las Qoray in the wee hours of Sunday morning while the majority of the city’s inhabitants were asleep raises more questions than answers.
Just to refresh our memories, in Hargeisa, as strange as it may sound, Somali citizens are rounded up in their own country as if they were illegal foreigners and deported to different regions within the country. Dr. Macow Aweys’s disgraceful treatment in Hargeisa really sums it all up. In recent history, only few despots and rogue regimes had carried out similar scandalous policies against their own people. Joseph Stalin purged and deported his own population in the 1930’s and 40’s, The South African apartheid regime viciously practiced the same method of expelling its own people from the main cities to the Townships. And the Israeli government routinely perpetrates against the Palestinian people.

On the contrary, Las Qoray is not a fortified city and certainly doesn’t have any trenches that prevent or hinder the movement of any Somali citizen. It is accessible to every Somali who wants to visit, invest, work, or settle there, irrespective of tribe or origin of locality.
That being said, what makes Mr. Silanyo’s visit dubious and different is the provocative nature of his trip to the city, and the false belief that somehow he is the president of an (imaginary) independent state called Somaliland in which Las Qoray is part of his domain.
Well, is there any legal proof to validate Somaliland’s assertion of Sanaag region being part of an internationally recognized State of Somaliland? The answer is NO, because Somaliland is neither a recognized state nor has a legal mandate to govern itself as a de facto state. It is merely a self-declared de facto autonomous state, which means the international community legally recognizes the Federal Government as the sole de jure government of all Somalia.
Clearly, Somaliland’s claim of sovereignty over Sanaag region is nothing more than one tribe’s ambition to subdue and dislodge another tribe from its land. Already Silanyo’s ill-advised drive-through visit sparked unprecedented explosion of emotions within the community. That is why his visit will risk igniting a civil war that will undoubtedly spread throughout the region like a wildfire, and return all but forgotten animosities between these two communities in the early 1990s.

It is obvious to see how erroneous Somaliland policies are. On one hand they are secretly negotiating with the Federal government by demanding more autonomy and future power sharing arrangements, and on the other, they are deceitfully still preaching to the people the same old hymn of secession and that we are different from the rest of Somalia.
In fact, the Somali people are ethnically, culturally, religiously and linguistically homogeneous people; they are only divided by clan lines. Hence, the arguments of northerners are distinct people or that an artificial border-line drawn by illegal colonial occupation could be used as a pretext to secede or divide us is bogus, simply because there is no scientific or cultural evidence to support that. And because of that uniformity, every effort by the separatists to solicit international recognition of an independent state, despite heavy lobbying and continuous distortion of Somali history, ends in futility.

They have cleverly tried to destroy and alter the history of Somalia by changing the flag, the national anthem, the national curriculum of the nation, and erase from the history books of all the Somali national heroes who fought for the independence and the unity of our country that we all cherish so dearly.

The world is fully aware of the complex and murky Somalia clan history, and will never capitulate to tribal demands of creating mini enclave-states. You would think logic and common sense will prevail and that Somaliland will come to its senses and give up chasing the impalpable dream of secession. Maybe not so, in this part of the world kamikaze policy is more of likelihood than a policy based on realization.

Meanwhile, millions of dollars in aid money given to Somaliland were siphoned off into personal accounts or simply wasted on wild-goose chase of recognition that never materialized. Even more shocking, there is a credible report that indicates Al-Shabaab militants and its founder Godane were on the payroll of Somaliland for a long period of time and are still on the dole to this day. No wonder Godane and his cronies never had any interest of destabilizing Somaliland, while Mogadishu and the rest of Somalia remain deadlocked with Al-Shabaab militants in perpetual cycle of violence. The United Nations development agencies and the donor countries are and should be held to accountable for not overseeing scrupulously where and how these finances were used.

Somaliland’s blatant aggression and Puntland’s bewilderment

Puntland’s recent elections plunged a dagger into the heart of the secessionist land. When Dr Abdiweli Gaas visited Jigjiga the capital of the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia, it was big news in Hargeisa, but for all the wrong reasons. It was Faisal Ali Warabe who exposed the separatist’s fictitious conspiracy theory of Dr. Gaas’s trip, when he proclaimed the visit to Jigjiga was intended to unite and create greater Daarood unison in the region to undermine the enclave’s aspiration of separate state.

laasqoray
However, Mr. Faisal being the most repugnant person of the hateful pack couldn’t hide his delight of congratulating Silanyo (as he puts it) for his historic visit to Las Qoray. He saw this as one step closer to achieving their grand scheme of conquering Sanaag region.
Another major element in the mix is; an old tribal vengeance and hate that runs deep in the psychic of every northerner. They perceive themselves as being librated from tyranny and domination, and therefore believe this time is theirs to occupy the helm. Ali A Fatah eloquently explained it in his (Somaliland: Africa’s Potemkin) article published on Allsanaag-website May13, 2011. He wrote, “By way of rationale, they offer half-baked ploy to justify their new if wrong-headed mantra: “Isaaqs were abused under the military dictatorship (of a generation ago) and for that we want to secede”. Never mind that every other Somali clan suffered under the same regime and, that none of the other communities wants to dismember the nation to pursue similar vainglorious ends.”
It is worrisome to witness the luck of any clear and decisive response from Puntland Government. Even thought, Puntland’s constitution clearly stipulates in articles 6 (I) and 6 (IV) that;
a) Puntland consists of the Regions of Bari, Nugaal, Sool, South Togdheer (Buuhoodle district), Mudug (save for Hobyo and Haradheeere) and Sanaag (save for Ceelafweyn and Northwest Ceerigaabo District} and
b) The territorial sovereignty of Puntland is supreme and cannot be ceded or violated}.
Equally, the Federal Government’s stand against the separatists must be firm.
They must make it clear to the secessionists when it comes to dealing with issues of territorial integrity, unity, and the sovereignty of the country there will never be any negotiations on that.

The Federal Government should understand and recognize that the Warsangeli and Dhulbahante clans in the north had always respected and stood up to defend the Somali unity in accordance with the union established on July 1st 1960. Without the inclusion of non-Isaaq clans in the north any discussions between the Federal Government and the separatists is doomed to fail.
Combine all these facts, and a clear picture of where Somalia is headedemerges. Recent exchanges I had with a senior politician and an expert of Somali affairs left me really worried. His ominous and dire warnings were all too apparent to me. “Forget about lessons learned from the civil war he said, the mother of all tribal-cleansing is on the way, where tribes are segregated from the rest of the flock and herded into a death valley like a wildebeest in the Serengeti.” It is survival of the fittest, he concluded.

I remain hopeful though that the good people of northern Somalia will appreciate the value of unity, and reinforce the unbreakable-ties between them and the rest of Somalia by rejecting the perverted agenda of the few intolerant self-serving individuals.
Finally, Silanyo’s stealth visit to Las-Qoray with the help of small number of traitors from the region who aren’t ashamed of licking the bottom of the barrel for few dollars, may very well turn out to be the wake-up call this community has been waiting for.

By Ahmed Saeed Warsame

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