Somaliland´s Definite Rejection from the World Community Underscored by Amnesty Int´l Report–Part I
The aforementioned assessment does not imply that the past developments could not have possibly taken another direction; the course could certainly have been different, and the trajectory could have led Northern Somalis to a successful and positive outcome. Ghosts of the past and subversive rumors, erratic perceptions and undeserved oblivion of the Somali national identity brought about the calamitous situation in which the Northern Somalis find themselves today.
Whereas in forthcoming articles, I will analyze the mistakes made during the past 19 years, I want to focus here on the reasons for which Somaliland will never become formally accepted as an independent state.
These reasons originate from the same problem which is nothing else than the existence of the racist, colonial tyranny of Abyssinia (fallaciously re-baptized Ethiopia). If the inhumane state of the bestial and uncivilized Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) Abyssinian elites did not exist, certainly a small Somali state in Somalia´s North could be possibly recognized. In fact, if the monstrous colonial state was dissolved, the various national and democratic states formed, the Afar Republic, the Ogaden Republic, the Republic of Oromo Ethiopia, and the other states would easily recognize Somaliland, and through this development the international community would be convinced to follow.
The lawless and loathed existence of Abyssinia, and the evil survival techniques pursued by the cruel, mendacious and racist ´Ethiopianist´ elites consist in the basic reason for Abyssinian interference in Somaliland, exploitation of the problems existing between Somaliland and Ogaden, Somaliland and Puntland, Somaliland and the Somali Center and South. This interference triggers a situation in which progress is conceived as elimination of the neighbor and the opposition, which in turn leads all the players to dictatorial policies and practices that cannot possibly be accepted by the World Community.
This is precisely what the recent Amnesty International Report on Somalia reveals: the problematic situation of the Human Rights in Somaliland. Of course, the Report is named after Somalia; Somaliland does not exist.
In the forthcoming elections, it would therefore be recommendable to all the Northern Somalis to find their only path to formal recognition which hinges on a reunification process with the other parts of Somalia. I herewith republish a first part of the devastating report against Riyaale´s tyranny, and in forthcoming articles, I will complete the republication of the valuable document that should be taken into consideration by all Northern Somalis before casting their votes.
Somalia: Human Rights Challenges: Somaliland Facing Elections
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR52/001/2009
Index Number: AFR 52/001/2009
Date Published: 17 March 2009
In the lead up to, during and after the upcoming presidential and local elections, scheduled for 2009, both the Government of Somaliland and the international community should pay greater attention to the overall human rights situation in Somaliland and consider ways to protect human rights. Amnesty International has been monitoring, reporting on and promoting human rights in Somaliland since 1991. This report offers recommendations to improve the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in Somaliland.
Somalia: Human Rights Challenges: Somaliland Facing Elections
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR52/001/2009/en/ec9271de-98aa-4ec4-a85e-500f901375a6/afr520012009en.pdf
Contents
1. Introduction..........................................................................................................2
2. Background .........................................................................................................3
3. Security Committees, Forced Returns and Unlawful Detentions................5
a. Security Committees ..........................................................................................5
b. Forced Returns ....................................................................................................7
c. Prisoners of Conscience: Journalists and Freedom of Expression ...............8
d. Prisoners of Conscience: Political Opposition Figures...................................8
4. Displaced Persons in Somaliland ....................................................................10
5. Human Rights in eastern Somaliland..............................................................13
6. Somaliland under International Law ..............................................................15
7. Defending Human Rights in Somaliland .......................................................17
8. Conclusion: Not Yet Equal Justice under Law as Elections Approach …..20
9. Recommandations...............................................................................................22
Appendix I ...............................................................................................................25
Appendix II ..............................................................................................................26
1. Introduction
In the lead up to, during and after the upcoming presidential and local elections, scheduled for 2009, both the Government of Somaliland and the international community should pay greater attention to the overall human rights situation in Somaliland and consider ways to protect human rights.
Amnesty International delegates travelled to Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, in December 2007. They collected information on human rights violations in Somaliland, and interviewed displaced persons from southern and central Somalia. Amnesty International has continued to monitor and document the human rights situation. This report offers recommendations to improve the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in Somaliland.
For more than a decade the Government of Somaliland has maintained relative stability throughout the territory it controls. It has carried out local, parliamentary and presidential elections, while serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law, lack of governance, ongoing armed conflict and recurrent humanitarian crises have characterized conditions for civilians throughout southern and central Somalia.
However, the Government of Somaliland has yet to firmly establish the respect, protection and promotion of specific human rights, such as those ensuring freedom of expression, including press freedom, and freedom of assembly and association. Some events taking place in 2007 and 2008 indicated a tendency to roll back respect for human rights on national security grounds.
Actions taken by government officials that have violated or threatened human rights in Somaliland have included: the arbitrary arrest and detention of journalists and opposition political leaders; unfair trials; non-transparent and unlawful conduct of National and Regional Security Committees; and unnecessary restrictions on freedom of expression, particularly with regard to the media. There have also been periodic reports of violations committed against civilians by Somaliland as well as Puntland forces in armed conflict against one another in and around Las Anod in Sool and Las Qorey in Sanaag, in eastern Somaliland.
Several of these concerns were at least partially resolved by January 2008, including the release of three opposition party leaders from prison; the non enforcement of an expulsion order against Somali journalists from Mogadishu; and a government commitment to provide emergency and development assistance in eastern Somaliland to address the economic disparity fueling human rights abuses in that area. Other violations, however, have continued.
Somaliland´s government diplomacy is aimed at securing international support for the recognition it has sought since unilaterally declaring independence from Somalia in 1991 after the fall of Somalia´s President, Major General Siad Barre.
Since the Government of Somaliland has demonstrated sensitivity to human rights concerns in the past, possibly based on its quest for recognition, governments engaged in the region and international organizations could help to ensure that human rights are respected and protected, and perpetrators of violations are brought to justice, including by exerting influence with the Government of Somaliland.
2. Background
Clan elders and leaders of the northern Somali National Movement (SNM) unilaterally declared Somaliland´s independence from Somalia on 18 May 1991, after the SNM and other armed groups toppled the government of then-President Siad Barre.
Somaliland (the former British Protectorate of Somaliland) had united with southern Somalia (former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic in 1960. After a military coup that overthrew the elected government in 1969, widespread human rights violations took place against the people of Somalia, carried out by Siad Barre´s Somali National Army (SNA) and other security forces, particularly in the northwest of the country. These violations laid the foundation for the re-separation of Somaliland along former colonial borders in May 1991, when local leaders declared Somaliland independent, claiming the people´s right to self-determination.1
While Somalia descended into nearly two decades of political and criminal violence, Somaliland established a new government in the north. The self declared independence of Somaliland has to date not been recognized by any government or international body.
The first administration of Somaliland, under its first President Abdurahman Ahmed Ali Tuur, ran from 1991-1993 and attempted to establish a power-sharing system among the northern clans. In 1992 and from 1994 to 1996 Somaliland endured its own internal armed conflicts, based on unresolved clan rivalries and problems with power-sharing. But beginning in 1993, under the administration of President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, a series of traditional gatherings were held to build reconciliation, security, state formation, and a constitution.
Somaliland has since established an executive and judiciary, and a bicameral parliament divided between a House of Elders, known as the Guurti, and an elected Lower House, combining democratic and traditional means of governance.
Increased stability has encouraged the gradual return to Somaliland of upwards of 100,000 refugees who fled during the Somali civil war (1988-91) and the two subsequent conflicts in Somaliland. However, on 29 October 2008 three suicide bomb attacks were carried out in Hargeisa, simultaneous with an attack in Bossaso in the Somali region of Puntland. 2 In Hargeisa more than 20 civilians were killed and more than 30 injured when three separate cars drove into compounds housing the president´s residence, UN Development Programme offices, and the Ethiopian trade mission, with the last location suffering the worst damage and the greatest number of casualties.3 The October attacks have been widely interpreted both as spill-over from armed attacks by extremist opposition groups that characterize conditions in Somalia, and reaction to Somaliland´s economic and diplomatic relationship with Ethiopia and western governments.
The current president, Dahir Riyale Kahin, assumed office when President Egal died suddenly in 2002. President Riyale was then elected in 2003 by a slim margin in an election regarded by international observers, including the European Union, as largely free and fair.
The next presidential elections are scheduled for late March 2009, with wide expectation that they could be further delayed in part due to delays in the voter registration process.
Local elections are currently slated to follow the presidential election in late 2009.
Amnesty International has been monitoring, reporting on and promoting human rights in Somaliland since 1991, with an emphasis on minority rights, prisoners of conscience, and capacity-building among emerging civil society organizations in the capital Hargeisa and other parts of Somaliland.
In mid 2007, Amnesty International began receiving reports that space for civil society activity in Somaliland was shrinking—due in part to inappropriate government involvement in a dispute between members of the formerly prominent Somaliland Human Rights Organization Network (SHURO-Net), and in part to government actions to curtail the activities of the political association known as Qaran ("the nation"), which at that time sought to become a fourth political party.
In the words of one human rights defender, "the government succeeded in its strategy of ´you are either with me or against me." This puts civil society organizations in an awkward position in which they fear that if they voice their concerns the government would close the organizations."
The ongoing use of the National Security Committee and Regional Security Committees, exercising extra-judicial powers, has diminished the rule of law as carried out by an already weak, under-resourced and multi-level judicial system.
It has been reported that these committees have authorized the unlawful arrest and detention of some individuals, including several journalists in 2007. They have also ordered the arrest of others held without trial in incommunicado detention on national security grounds.
Note
Picture: Camp for displaced persons in Somaliland – from the Amnesty International Report
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