Dear Prime Minister,
- Imagine Agaro or Jimma town bombarded and destroyed by planes
belonging to the Ethiopian Army whose whole and sole responsibility was
to protect, not to bomb its people. What if MIG17 were to take off from
the airport to bomb the town itself? What if you were in your mother’s
womb and she could not even walk the distance between Jimma and
Sudan-Ethiopia border to look for shelter and safety and to keep you
survive inside her womb? Just visualize a situation where your mother
could not even think that you would ever survive, because of the
planes’ shelling and soldiers slaughtering their fellow citizens in
every corner of the Agaro streets? How would you feel if your mother’s
efforts and patience helped you being born in a refugee camp in Sudan
and becoming a Sudanese citizen?
From all the above-mentioned questions, I am trying to project how my
mother had been able to outlive the long suffering of the shelling and
bombing by Somali Army of Hargeisa, where she had been living. In 1988,
my mother was expecting her first child and her ambition was to have
her baby born in an environment with adequate medical facilities, but
unfortunately, like other mothers in Somaliland then, she was forced to
flee to Ethiopia. Luckily enough, she was not among the dead for I would
have also died in her womb. In a dark night, without a medical doctor’s
help, I joined this world.
Many moons later, and in an absolutely different situation, I was
lucky enough to be able to have a country – Ethiopia, its citizenship
and other necessary facilities in life. But what about my ancestor’s
country- Somaliland? Like the liberation movements in Ethiopia, Somali
National Movement took over the power in Somaliland. After years of
armed struggle, they managed to withdraw from the failed union with
Somalia in 1991. Since that year, Somaliland has been developing and
building its own state with limited external help. Since then, the only
friend in the region both politically and economically that my
ancestor’s country of Somaliland has had is Ethiopia. It’s been longtime
friend of Ethiopia in terms of Security with mutual interest. So, I
know firsthand how Somaliland is contributing to the region’s stability,
including Ethiopia’s.
Dear Prime Minister, as an Ethiopian citizen having also family
members in Somaliland, I am well aware of their desperate need of their
right to be recognized as a sovereign independent state. I am thus urged to kindly submit this open letter to you. As a part
of your new political strategy in the region and in Africa at large,
which I really admire, do please take the lead to recognize the earnest
efforts and the tangible contributions being made by the people of
Somaliland to the region and to the world. It is in the interest of our
both countries. There are a lot of important matters that the two
countries share together, and by further elevating our diplomatic status
to a higher level of full fledged ambassadorial level, will only do to
consolidate the existing friendly relationship and enhance the common
interests of the two countries.
Mr. Prime Minister,
I am confident that you would give serious consideration to the
abovementioned issues and the other vital ones that are not mentioned in
this letter, not only because of my being a fellow Ethiopian citizen,
but more so because of the dire need which has been emphasized by your
declaration at your oath ceremony: “We will stand by our African
brothers in general and our neighbors in particular, during good and bad
times.” Needless to reiterate Somaliland is our neighbor and African
brother too.
By Yasmin M. Kahin,
Law graduate, Poetess and Playwright.
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