Yesterday the ever-helpful Somaliland247 blog provided a video and some photos expressing the hope of Somaliland for the recognition of their long-held independent status [1]. These photos and video interviews express the sincere desires of a people to be recognized as free and independent, in light of their separate colonial past and different culture and legal system then the remainder of Somalia.
This subject, that of the international recognition of Somaliland, has been a common one discussed on this blog [2] [3] [4] [5] [6], but it is worthwhile to examine the video evidence to see from the people of Somaliland their own words out of their own mouths. Despite having a currency, the monuments and accouterments of statehood, a functioning democracy that has survived several peaceful transfers of power (a rare occurrence in Africa), a functioning and efficient legal system that has attracted considerable positive foreign attention [7] [8], Somaliland has languished in the netherworld of actual existence but official lack of existence, without any time line or process for moving into official existence.
For nearly twenty years now the nation of Somaliland has insisted on its own independence, something recognized by the United Nations for nearly twenty years according to its own testimony [9], and yet the UN and African Union have done nothing yet to put Somaliland on the track to existence where it belongs and where it quite sensibly demands to be. The fact that South Sudan has been granted its plebiscite for independence, a vote that appears so far to have ended in a resounding victory for independence, with the hope of international recognition for a nation that has never existed on its own, nor was ever a separate colony, has given Somaliland a hope that its turn has come [10].
Regardless of the disinclination many nations (even in Africa) may have about the official recognition of the dissolution of the misguided union between Somaliland and Somalia, the precedent of recognizing that regions have a right to be free when there is no possibility of their peaceful coexistence in a failed state. It ought to matter not that Somalia was a failed state twenty years ago when Cold War geopolitics led nations to turn a blind eye to the Barre regime’s attempt to destroy the people and infrastructure of Somaliland and Sudan’s genocides in South Sudan and Darfur have drawn attention more recently. Unfinished business ought to be taken care of, and now that the eyes of the world are focused on nation building in Africa, one might as well add a worthy nation to the list in Somaliland, out of the justice and equity of its case.
Somaliland deserves the opportunity to pursue its destiny as a nation, and the chance to show itself as an example to its region as a moderate Islamic republic with constitutional law, a functioning legal and economic system, and the ability to trade effectively with the world. The international community has the opportunity to right wrongs that have lasted for decades. All it would take is an internationally recognized referendum in Somaliland showing the will of the people of that nation to be free, and the willingness of the African Union and United Nations to accept Somaliland as a free and independent nation when that vote is cast. Is the international community willing to accept Somaliland as a full partner among its midst? Let it be so, now that the world is watching.
[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/somalilands-quid-pro-quo/
[3] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/what-wikileaks-says-about-somaliland/
[7] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/somaliland-puntland-and-the-arms-embargo/
[9] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/book-review-somalia-the-missed-opportunities/
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