While supporting the New Deal process and welcoming of the donors’ engagement, Somaliland has chosen not to participate in the Conference as the country’s national needs and priorities are very different to Somalia’s, writes Mohamed Behi Yonis.
Mohamed Behi Yonis is Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation, Republic of Somaliland.
Despite facing many pressing problems, both in Europe and elsewhere, it is encouraging to see that EU leaders are going to focus on my region today, in a Conference – the New Deal for Somalia, that will sanction a clear and improved framework for international donors’ engagement with the Somali people.
The Horn of Africa has for a long time been seen as one of the world’s most troubled regions. It has been defined on the front pages of Europe’s newspapers by conflict, repression, famine, terrorism and piracy. Thanks to international support, Somalia has made important progress since 2012 but it remains very fragile and in need of further assistance to achieve stability, security and good governance.
To that end, Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, and Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, will gather in Brussels with a number of donors and beneficiaries.
Somaliland whole-heartedly welcomes the New Deal for Fragile States process, inaugurated in Busan in 2011 by a group of donors and post-conflict countries, as it offers a more effective mechanism to deliver development assistance to our country.
However, while supporting the New Deal process and welcoming of the donors’ engagement, we have chosen not to participate in the Conference. Somaliland and Somalia find themselves at two very different stages of development, and we therefore feel that our presence at this particular Conference, co-hosted by Somalia, would not be appropriate. We Somalilanders have governed ourselves in conditions of peace and stability for the last 22 years, and our country is at the “transformative” stage of development, whereas Somalia has yet to recover from more than two decades of civil war and much of its territory remains outside government control. Somaliland’s national needs and priorities are very different to Somalia’s.
This does not mean that we do not wish to engage with the EU —Somaliland is extremely grateful to the EU for its strong support and friendship across a whole range of important issues.
And it does not mean that we are not willing to speak and cooperate with Somalia. In 2012 the international community agreed to support a Dialogue between Somaliland and Somalia and we held three rounds of talks so far. The objective is to clarity our future relationship and in the short-term we hope to cooperate on issues like security and trade.
Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991, after a civil war in which 50,000 Somalilanders were killed, and our capital, Hargeisa, was reduced to rubble by bombs.
That independence was strongly endorsed by a referendum in 2001, and by the results of 5 democratic nation-wide elections held since that time.
We have built a separate state, which meets in full the criteria of customary international law for statehood, and which our peaceful and hard-working citizens are proud of.
We will not cooperate in attempts to rebuild the former unified state of Somalia, if it purports to include Somaliland. Nor can we cooperate in any effort to use aid as a lever to force Somaliland to become part of Somalia.
In line with our support for the New Deal process, the Somaliland Government and civil society have together adopted a document based on New Deal principles, the Somaliland Special Arrangement (SSA). This is fully compatible with our National Development Plan, and therefore reflects our own priorities.
Our intention is that the SSA will form a distinct and separate component of the broader Somali New Deal Compact, facilitating coordination between the donor community and Somaliland at the level of both government and civil society. The Federal Government of Somalia has had no input into this document.
We wish to settle our differences with Somalia peacefully and without outside pressure. It is in our interests to see Somalia recover its former stability, provided that it does not compromise our own stability, nor our people’s desire for Somaliland to be recognised as an independent state.
We support the New Deal, and hope to be able to work with the EU in the future to build not only a strong, stable and democratic Somalia, but a strong, stable, democratic and independent Somaliland too.
COMMENTS
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Excellent article Somaliland is fundamentally different form war torn country of Somalia and the world should treat it’s uniqueness Somaliland belongs to Gadabiirsi, Dhulbahante, Warsangeli, Fiqishinni, Isse,Madhiban, Issaq, Gabooye Tumals and Yibirs tribes and together they are proud their country of Somaliland republic. Somaliland prove that it’s Territory can’t live in any single element of Islamic fundamentalists terrorists organization such as Al Qaida Horn of African arm of Al Shabaab. Somaliland is a peaceful and democratic nation and it deserve the world to recognize.
By :S. I. Bolaleh
– Posted on :16/09/2013
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A clear expounding of Somaliland’s view on how to go forward with both the international community and the nascent beginnings of a Somali state based in Mog.
By :Mohammed Ismail
– Posted on :16/09/2013
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if you keep on boasting while you still have all those problems then let lies help you.remember only the lonely die slowly thats the case with Hargeisa
By :omar
– Posted on :16/09/2013
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Boasting? Not sure what you are reading here. As for dying lonely, folks in Hargeisa are doing rather well and people from other regions have voted with their feet. Regardless of what your issues with Sland are, you cannot deny they have achieved peace and stability in a region sorely lacking in both.
By :Mohammed Ismail
– Posted on :16/09/2013
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History tells us that the Somalia we know today came into existence after British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland united in 1960, British Somaliland withdrew from the union in 1991 after a bloody war to become Somaliland, however the Italian Somaliland which is today’s Federal Somali Government refuses to accept that and regards ex-British Somaliland to be part of SFG. The SFG does everything to destabilize Somaliland by giving government posts to anyone from Somaliland they can persuade and supporting armed groups against Somaliland however it has little effect as Somaliland has the majority of its people behind its quest for international recognition. The world can not deny Somaliland for the right to self determination and the Somali Federal Government which controls little with the help of foreign troops risks making enemy at its doorstep. The New Deal conference will not be different from the many conferences before it. The solution of the Somali problem lies in the hands of Somalis not the EU or any other world body.
