Date: 31st August 2014
An open letter to the UN Secretary General, His Excellency, Mr Ban ki-Moon
Nicolas Kay’s multifaceted mission to Somalia: Is he in a grave peril of the Region?
When I read the statement made by the head of the Un mission to Somalia,Mr Nicholas Kay made on 29 August aboutSomaliland’s efforts to bring itsmost southern peripheriesunder its control, I had been expected to congratulateour government for owningup to its responsibility to provide security and stability to all of its citizen by eliminating the threat exposed from terrorism not only toSomaliland but regionally. Heappears to be encouraging lawlessness and undermining our statehood when he said in it “all armed forced to withdraw SAAX DHEER”. It is a small border town to Ethiopian border in the Sool region. He seemed to have been dogmatic bydenying the Somaliland territorial integrity and its statehood and above all fostering instability in our country.
Furthermore, he does not seem to be considerate to Somaliland’s historical perspective to have beenvoluntarily united with Somalia within days of its independence on the 26th June 1960 but on the18th May1991reverted to its sovereignty at heavy cost. The question Mr Kay needs to answer iswhy doeshe seem to be fomenting a save heaven for armedterrorist group that aligned Alshabab and ONLF byrequesting downsizing Somaliland armed forces effectiveness to have full control ofthe entirety of its territory where he failed his responsibility to bring about peace in Somalia with huge resources and strong African Union armed forces presence estimated to be 30,000.
The head of the UN mission to Somalia was appeared to be impinging upon Somaliland’s armed forces over the wicked militia that bent to exporting violence to the most secure and democratic state in the horn of Africa. This is the truest factwhen he discernibly decipheredan equal dimension to the Somaliland armed forces tothat of theterror group when he had stated that all warring forces to withdraw the area. This is a term(all armed forces) hewas alluding to be showing no respect to the Somaliland government and our armed forces, and did not make asubtledifference betweenthe armed bandit creating lawlessness not only in Somaliland but also itsimmediate neighbour of Ethiopia.
In that negating statement to our statehood, it triggersme to ask myself a myriad of question why he should have been sympathised by aviolent militia aimed at fomentinglawlessness in a meagre part of most southern peripheries of Somaliland. That statement wasa pernicious claim to us and one should ask why heis inducinglawlessness in part of Somaliland region. Conversely, his mission continues to deluge foreign troops into Somalia to stem out terrorism and lawlessness while paradoxically in Somaliland creating an enabling environmentfor terrorism to get a foothold.
Mr Kay was quoted to have said that the UN and AU objectives in Somalia were to rebuild a strong Somalia that can maintain law and order the entirety of its territory. Elaborating on that, he stated that African UNION are there to help the Somali government achieve that goal by defeating ALSHABAAB andall armed groups in Somalia. However, his statementwas inept at our sovereignty, and unwittingly supportsthe Alshabab’s claim that the UN and AU mission in Somalia are there to colonialize, to corrupt and erode their culture and religion; andto undo parts ofSomaliathat peace prevailed, including Somaliland.
With that context embedded in Alshabab’s core recruitment drive to perpetuate, the UN Somalia mission appears now to be multifaceted byfostering terrorisminSomaliland. Mr Kay needs to realise he was wrong to be supporting an armed bandit that aimed at destabilising Somaliland to create afresh hostility within the people of Somaliland. He should have been awareof Somaliland community defused local conflict resolution in which all the past inter-clan animositywere resolved. That led the reborn of Somaliland that was evidently claimed to have produced the most advance democracy not only in Africa but in the developing world. The Ethiopian late Prime Minister, Mr Meles Zenawe was quoted to have said the democracy in Somaliland is not only an example for Ethiopia to see its height but Africa countries as a whole.
Finally, the Somaliland people were perplexed to see the head UNmission to Somalia to beinjudiciously supporting illegal armed groups that are not accountable to anyone. We have expected the UN mission to supporting and respecting the right of our people to beinternationally recognised as it will be a panacea to the region’s endemicconflict,particularlySomalia.Notwithstanding that our people are verygratefulof the huge humanitarian assistance the UN agencies provides to our people, butthe current head of the UN mission to Somalia denigrates the good image of the UN agency andlost our trust and confidence in the UN.In conclusion, Somaliland saw yourmission to Somalia as irrelevant to them and is in peril of the stability of the region. Your Office needs to get connected to our country by creating a new UN mission specific to Somaliland with a mandate to creating enable environment to get Somaliland internationally recognised.
Ahmed Abdi Isse
Academic in Social Science
This letter was also sent to Somaliland President and the Ethiopian Prime Minister
