Somaliland: A Dialogue on the subject of a previous Dialogue

- Despite the jubilant mood of the Somaliland delegation in London and the congratulatory message from Hon. William Hague, UK foreign and commonwealth secretary, the Chevening house achievements of the Somaliland-Somalia dialogue were much below the expectations of most ordinary Somalilanders.

Subsequent to that dialogue, Somaliland citizens were waiting to minimally witness the sovereignty of Somaliland unambiguously put into the agenda of the forthcoming talks with Somalia. To the dismay of Somalilanders, the outcome of the dialogue was limited to few points of concurrence and there was no mention of specific agenda points for future discussions. Additionally, the Somalia people misunderstood Somaliland’s acceptance of the Somaliland-Somalia dialogue and wrongfully misinterpreted it as a softening of the Somaliland government’s stance on its sovereignty issue.

For instance, Mr. Abdiweli Gaas, the TFG Prime Minister spared no time to distort Somaliland’s position in the Chevening dialogue to his malicious desires and said: “We are happy to see Somaliland realizing that Somali unity is the only way foreword”. The TFG prime minister and his colleagues in his tribal Majeertenia enclave need to learn to set their priorities right. They need to work hard for the peace and unity of their own war-torn and politically fragmented Somalia and must not boorishly interferes with the policies and aspirations of the peaceful and democratic neighbouring Republic of Somaliland.

According to a recent World Bank report, Mr. Abdiweli Gaas and his cohorts have misappropriated hundreds of millions from Somalia’s treasury. This money was theoretically destined to feed millions of starving people in Somalia, but instead those millions of dollars went straight to the TFG’s multiple deep pockets. Hence, Mr. Gaas believes that he is legally unstoppable and can walk off with everything including the Sovereignty of the Republic of Somaliland.

Likewise, the director of immigration in the TFG government thinks that Somalia’s dominance over Somaliland is back after the Somaliland-Somalia dialogue in Kent and has issued a warning to the Somaliland government, he foolery threatened to add Somaliland to the international terrorist list, if Somalilanders do not stop traveling on the old Somali passports. This misguided person is ignorant of the fact that that Somaliland was independent of Somalia for more than two decades and Somaliland’s credibility is internationally way above Somalia’s authority.

Furthermore, the TFG government is much closer to be added to the terrorist list than the Republic of Somaliland. It is not a secret that the current President of the TFG and many members of his government were not long ago acknowledged full members of the Al-shabaab piloted terrorist organizations. Not only that, but most people believe the TFG is furtively and closely collaborating with Somalia’s terrorist groups for the purpose of prolonging their rein through terrorism and anarchy.

At the end of the day, Somalilanders hope the upcoming Somaliland-Somalia internationally mediated meetings will yield more substantial fruits and will not finish up being a dialogue on the subject of a previous dialogue. Somaliland citizens will not settle for anything less than reparation payments for the thirty years of Somalia’s criminal occupation of Somaliland, war criminals being brought to international justice and the declaration of a full Somaliland sovereignty. These are precisely what Somaliland citizens expect their president to bring to the negotiation table next time around, when he meets with the international community and Somalia’s president.

By Yusuf Dirir Ali