December, 22.2007
Well the last discussion of the Pentagon about Somaliland was a positive move from the US. Some would say it is the best during the past 17 years. I think it is still hard for some people to believe that the US is finally in favor of Somaliland’s recognition. Why not ? what is Somaliland differ from its own sister, Kosovo ?
Somaliland has been independent from the rest of Somalia for the last 17 years maintaining the best peace-building practices in the world. It maintained to start
from the scratch without any support from the International community. Building a high quality military and police forces, creating a whole governmental body with its government, parliament, judicial system, national bank, etc. all elected by the public is something that is very rare in the whole Africa. For Somaliland it was success but it always met a blind eyes from the western powers when it comes to the issue of international recognition. With all the efforts done by the government, the opposition parties and the Somaliland individuals living inside and outside the country there are still no touchable results of the issue.
Suddenly here is the US debating over Somaliland’s recognition and clearly in favor of it. It was a big surprise to the world especially after the Kosovo’s issue. It was a big success for Somaliland’s foreign minister for his struggle to put this issue at least on the table and he immediately replied to the pentagon for their concern. The Somaliland community everywhere also welcomed the move as they see this is a golden opportunity for their abandoned country.
Some Arab newsletters and journals started to highlight the issue marking it as Arabs loosing Somalia if Somaliland is recognized. It is usual that Arabs do not welcome anything that is for the good of Somaliland but they don’t have a choice this time especially when the US is the one lobbying for the case.
Now as the Somalilanders are expecting a bravely move from the America to announce its recognition to Somaliland and the Somaliland’s enemy is waiting for the outcome of more discussions within the Bush administration it is expected otherwise too.
Somaliland made all the necessary steps to be an independent government and the last move of closing the border in Sool region can be described as the last step to finalize the struggle which attracted the international attention towards Somaliland.
But the question is:
Will the US do it ?
Will the US dare to face this and announce their recognition to Somaliland ?
If that happens then the Americans will be welcomed flowers in this part of the world.Roble Mohamed
1 comment:
Smaliland's recent military push into the ''SSA'' regions, notably the less than accurately reported Las Anood clashes seems to be an agenda driven, pre election, political orchestration from a ruling party in the final stages of its office.
I understand that the territory in dispute is in reality only a few square miles. However;
Considering the fact that the tribal leaders, lawmakers, and indeed the overwhelming majority of people living in the ''SSA'' zone are pro Puntland Somalis, will the US,UN policy initiators simply draw a '' line at 49'', thus prolonging the potential for protracted civil unrest in what seems to be a highly prospective future oil producing region, or will they develop dialogue amongst the traditional owners of these districts to negate oppression and further civil unrest ?
The US has recently stated on the international press forum, 2 interesting indicatives that led me to the above comments for discussion.
1) The US plans to increase it's dependance on African oil during the next 12 years from 23% to 74%
2) The US is prepared to occupy any ''Stateless'' African region in an effort to discourage terrorist factions gaining further foot holds in the region.
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