Somaliland: European Union Role on Kosovo Vs African Union Role on
Somaliland

Written by: Jamal Ali Hussein, An International banker with an MBA from
Harvard University, USA.


It was January 28th, 2007 as I boarded my plane from New York to London
on my way to South Africa. I was reading the Financial Times when I
noticed an article about Kosovo to declare Statehood, and how the
European Union (EU) is setting the stage for Kosovo to be an
internationally recognized State. I could not help myself asking
questions like why on earth that the African Union (AU) is not playing
the same role on my birth place of Somaliland?

On May 18th, 2007, Somaliland Republic (former British Somaliland)
celebrates 16 years of self-rule and thriving democracy since it has
decided to re-instate its sovereign independence from Somalia after the
fall of Siad Barre regime in 1991. As a Somalilander myself who run away
from Siad Barre's atrocities as a young man in the late 1980s and
settled in the United States, I have a mixed feeling as I see my people
celebrating the 16th anniversary of Somaliland's birth. On one hand, I
am extremely proud of the people of Somaliland, and its leaders for what
they were able to achieve for the past 16 years. On the other hand, I am
less excited, and amazed by lack of African Union's role in leading the
way to promote the Somaliland's cause by sending a strong signal to
other African countries that they do care and reward for peace,
stability, and democracy (acknowledging people's choice). It is very
clear why European Union is very serious about the status of Kosovo.
Answer: EU is planning to avoid risk of war and violence that would
again destabilize the Balkans region. The million dollar question is why
the African Union is not far sighted to avoid a potential and imminent
war between Somalia's Southern Leaders, and Somaliland that will
undermine the stability of the whole region? 

Somali's Southern Leaders are not known to respect the rule of law and
the wishes of its citizens, it is the main reason that Somaliland people
are fully determined to fight for its sovereign status following its
roots of independence time from Great Britain on June 26th, 1960. Thirty
one countries that are members of the United Nations recognized
Somaliland as an independent state before uniting with the Italian
Somaliland on July 1st, 1960 to form what was known as Somali Republic.
Somaliland is only seeking recognition within the borders received at
that moment. Somaliland, not officially recognized by any state, has
been functioning as constitutional democracy with a President directly
elected by the people, added by a parliament and local government also
directly elected by the people. Somaliland did not even have a
university for 31 years of union with the southern Somalia, and today
they have four universities despite its lack of recognition. They have
four private owned telephone and mobile operators where they did not
have any in the past 31 years of union with the South. And the list goes
on.

Some people do not truly understand why people of Somaliland decided to
go alone, and broke its partnership with the South. Some of the people
even speculate that the issue of Somaliland is tied with the stability
of the Southern Somalia, and the union will be back when the rest of the
South becomes stable.  As a matter of fact, there are many reasons why
Somaliland re-took its independence, and broke its partnership, but in
my personal view, I would only focus on two important reasons;


1. British Somaliland has voluntarily entered a union with Italian
Somaliland in pursuit of irredentist dream of "Greater Somalia"
(including parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti).  It was very clear
to everybody in both regions that it was never intended to stop with the
union of the two regions, but to pursue the other 3 remaining regions.
Therefore, that dream has effectively died when Djibouti got its
independence in 1977, and decided to go alone without joining the
existing union. If Djibouti people had that freedom to make that choice,
it is only fair that the people of Somaliland can make similar choices
to decide on their faith. The main argument here is that the Somali
union in 1960 did not achieve the reason it has been formed which was a
greater Somalia, and Somaliland's voluntary union at that time was based
on that. And if that dream did not materialize, Somaliland could go
alone like the other regions did where Somalis live including Djibouti,
Kenya, and Ethiopia.

2. Another very crucial point that made the people of Somaliland go
on separate ways from the South is the suffering and injustices that the
people of Somaliland endured for 31 years of marriage. They have
suffered at the hands of Southern rule governments particularly during
Siad Barre's 21-year rule. The whole world knows that those governments
even bombarded Somaliland cities. Therefore, it is a trust issue. If you
had a business partnership with another person and you have suffered and
lost everything, and you re-start your business. Would you again trust
to create another partnership with that person? It is fair to say that
the people of Somaliland have a trust issue with their brothers in the
South, and will not join them again with union despite a lack of
recognition by the International community. Most Somalilanders, who only
know Somaliland because they were either young or born after Somaliland
re-took its independence in 1991, would tell you that if there was such
a Southern domination in the past, it is certainly a history, only
refers the unity in the past tense.

It is important to note that AU sent a fact finding mission to
Somaliland in 2005 in order to respond to the concern that Somaliland
recognition would create a fragmentation of Somalia, or other AU member
states, the African Union fact finding mission in 2005 concluded "the
case should not be linked to the notion of "opening a Pandora box", and
the report recommended that AU "should find a special method of dealing
with this outstanding case" as soon as possible. Unfortunately, AU
actions stopped there. Why we Africans can not decide for ourselves,
while Europeans are doing so and EU leading the way. I hope I can one
day be proud of our African leaders through the African Union leadership
when I see that they are taking a far sighted approach like the EU doing
on Kosovo.

The more the African Union delays dealing with the Somaliland case, the
more it makes the situation in East Africa difficult, and risk of war,
and even equally important the more the AU credibility is on the line.
Somaliland case is a time bomb for the African Union and the
International community could not really afford to ignore. On the other
hand, Somaliland's multi-party democracy system is rarity in Africa, and
the Muslim World, and the African Union needs to seriously consider
Somaliland's formal application of AU membership to reward for people's
choice. Somaliland is a state where the power truly belongs to the
people.