President Rayale meets with State, Pentagon and USAID officials.

Written by Qarannews.
Jan 19, 2008 at 09:53 PM

Washington(QARAN)-In a communique issued by the Somaliland representative to the United States of America, Dr. Sa'ad Sheikh Osman Nur,

A delegation led by the Somaliland President Mudane Dahir Rayale Kahin met at a luncheon held at the State Department with the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Dr Jendayi Frazer and senior members of the State Department in Washington, DC.

Earlier in the day, President Rayale and his delegation met with the senior members of the United States Aid for International Development, USAID.

Also, the President's delegation began its main meeting with senior members of the United States government, including Assistant Secretary of State for the Defence, Ms. Theresa M. Whalan at the Pentagon.

President Rayale also received at his hotel in Washington, the special adviser to President Bush on African Affairs, Mr. Bobby J. Pittman.

President Rayale was accompanied at all his meetings by the Somaliland delegation, including Mudane Abdillahi Mohamed Duale, Foreign Minister, Mudane Abdi Haibe Mohamed, Health Minister and Mudane Ahmed Ali Hassan, the Somaliland Justice minister.

Also attending the meetings were the deputy minister for Planning, Mudane Ahmed Hashi Abdi and the President's private secretary, Mudane Ahmed Mohamed Isse.


Qarannews

President Rayale in Washington

President Rayale with Deputy Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Africa, Mr. James Sworn

US state dept security men aiding Huda Barkhad to a waiting state department limousine

Washington DC, 13 January 2008 - The Somaliland delegation led by President Dahir Rayale Kahin visited yesterday all the United States monument and memorial in Washington DC and the surrounding areas.The President's envoy and under close security detailed visited Mount Vernon, the home and farm of America's first President George Washington, the Lincoln memorial, the Vietnam War memorial and many other areas of historical interest. The President's delegation arrived in Washington on Friday evening, and were met at Dulles International by senior members of the United States State Department, including the Deputy Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Africa, Mr. James Sworn, State Department Protocol officers and members of the diplomatic security detail. The President's delegation includes, Huda Barkhad, Abdillahi Mohamed Duale, Abdi Haibe and Ahmed Hassan Ali, respectively Somaliland's ministers for Foreign Affairs, Health and Justice. The deputy minister for Planning, Ahmed Hashi Abdi and the President's private secretary, Ahmed Mohamed Isse.Dr. Sa'ad Sheikh Osman NurRepresentative of the Republic of Somaliland in the United States of America.Washington, DC.

Source: Somaliland Times

U.S. Debating Shift of Support in Somali Conflict

By Ann Scott TysonWashington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 4, 2007; Page A17

CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti, Dec. 3 -- The escalating conflict in Somalia is generating debate inside the Bush administration over whether the United States should continue to back the shaky transitional government in Mogadishu or shift support to the less volatile region of Somaliland, which declared independence in 1991, U.S. defense and military officials said.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates discussed regional issues during a visit to Djibouti on Monday, including Somalia and the presence there of about 8,000 Ethiopian troops, the officials said. Ethiopian forces intervened a year ago to install the fledgling government in Mogadishu and they continue to fight Islamic radicals in Somalia.

"My biggest concern about Somalia is the potential for al-Qaeda to be active there," Gates said on his first visit to the Horn of Africa as defense secretary. Asked about allegations of human rights abuses by Ethiopian troops in Somalia, Gates said: "We're obviously very interested in helping the African Union and Ugandans to try and exercise some constructive influence on the Ethiopians."

U.S. military officials say Somalia is the greatest source of instability in the Horn of Africa, leading them to seek new ways to contain the violence there.
One approach, Pentagon officials argue, would be to forge ties with Somaliland, as the U.S. military has with Kenya and other countries bordering Somalia. A breakaway region along Somalia's northwestern coast, Somaliland has about 2 million people and an elected president, and offers greater potential for U.S. military assistance to bolster security, even though it lacks international recognition, they say.

"Somaliland is an entity that works," a senior defense official said. "We're caught between a rock and a hard place because they're not a recognized state," the official said.
The Pentagon's view is that "Somaliland should be independent," another defense official said. "We should build up the parts that are functional and box in" Somalia's unstable regions, particularly around Mogadishu.
In contrast, "the State Department wants to fix the broken part first -- that's been a failed policy," the official said.

The official U.S. government position is that the United States should withhold recognition from Somaliland because the African Union has yet to recognize it. "We do not want to get ahead of the continental organization on an issue of such importance," said Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi E. Frazer in an e-mailed response to questions.
The issue is diplomatically sensitive because recognizing Somaliland could set a precedent for other secession movements seeking to change colonial-era borders, opening a Pandora's box in the region.

In Djibouti, U.S. military officials say they are eager to engage Somaliland. "We'd love to, we're just waiting for State to give us the okay," said Navy Capt. Bob Wright, head of strategic communication for the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa. The task force is composed of about 1,800 U.S. troops who conduct military training and reconstruction projects such as digging wells and building schools in 11 countries in the region.

Meanwhile, the United States continues to back Somalia's weak Transitional Federal Government, set up in late 2004 with support from international organizations and the African Union.

Source. Washington Post

Except in Somaliland

Written by Richard Dowden
Jan 06, 2008 at 11:17 PM

There are no serious secessionist movements in Africa today, except in Somaliland where there is no ethnic factor involved.
The West's patronising response to the recent events in Kenya betrays our lack of respect to a sophisticated continent

Observer

Imagine: at the end of the Second World War, America and the Soviet Union decide they are tired of tribal warfare in Europe. The century is only halfway through and already some 90 million people have been slaughtered. The solution is a single European country imposed from above. So the Slovene President is trying to broker a provincial border dispute between France and Germany. Under France is a vast pool of oil but some of it is also under Germany - the Germans are all Muslim by the way. Meanwhile, the ancient tribal hatreds still cause frequent massacres among Greeks and Turks, Basques and Spanish and in Highbury and Tottenham. Tribalism is not an exclusively African disease. Imagining a 'tribal' Europe gives you some idea of what African citizenship is like. The EU has only 23 languages; Africa has at least 2,000. Kenya alone has 40. Like an imagined Europe unified by force by outsiders, Africans played no part in the creation of their nation states. Their boundaries were drawn on maps in Europe by Europeans who had never even been to Africa and with no regard for existing political systems and boundaries. Half a century later, Africans were given flags and national anthems, airlines and armies and told they were now independent; Kenyans, Nigerians or Chadians.
Unsurprisingly, most Africans, especially in rural areas with little education, identify more with their own people, language, culture and society than they do with their nation state, especially if that nation state has done nothing for them. That is not to say they reject it. Kenyans are proud of being Kenyan; even Congolese, where the nation state is weakest, are desperately Congolese. There are no serious secessionist movements in Africa today, except in Somaliland where there is no ethnic factor involved.
So while tribalism is an issue in Africa, it is not some weird atavistic African sentiment but a logical result of Africa's imposed history. Most Africans I have met speak three or four languages, intermarriage is common and there is, in normal times, little personal conflict between people of different ethnicity. What always astounds me in Africa is how well people of completely different cultures, customs and languages get along with one another.
In some African countries, there is one dominant ethnic group. In Zimbabwe, it is the Shona, in Uganda the Baganda and in Kenya it is the Kikuyu. The Kikuyu also dominate business and tend to be richer than other groups. Some of that comes through hard work and business acumen, but a lot of it comes through corrupt political connections, which has bred fierce resentment from those who have nothing. Almost half of Kenyans live in desperate poverty, on the equivalent of a dollar a day. But around them they see rich foreigners and some very rich Kenyans, mostly Kikuyu. In a 2005 opinion poll, Kenyans put equality as the issue that concerned them most, equality of opportunity as well as resources.
Given their poverty and frustration, Kenyans are remarkably patient and peaceful. But no wonder there was rage when an election appears to have been stolen by a corrupt Kikuyu elite. So in Nairobi's appalling slums crammed with desperately poor but hopeful Kenyans from all over the country, Kikuyu shops and zones have been attacked and Kikuyus killed.
In other parts of the country, Kikuyu outside their traditional area are also being attacked, as they were in Eldoret. In that part of the Rift Valley, land was taken in the Forties and Fifties for white farmers and the local Kalenjin driven off. At independence, the white farmers left, selling to the highest bidders, who happened to be rich Kikuyu. They moved in other Kikuyu to work the land and their 'occupation' is deeply resented. Land in Africa is not real estate, to be bought and sold. It is sacred, where the ancestors still live, part of a person's blood and soul. It cannot just be sold like cloth. Ever since the white man left, there have been periodic clashes over land in the Rift Valley; Kenya's population has doubled since then, so competition for land intensifies.
Anyone who expressed shock at the recent violence in such a 'stable' country clearly knows nothing about Kenya. The British government was caught completely by surprise, but immediately deployed the language of a former colonial power. Gordon Brown said: 'What I want to see is...' His advice was wise but his tone set teeth on edge. Would he have used that language when another former British colony, the USA, had a hung election in 2000?
And Britain does not speak with credibility in Kenya. In every previous election in Kenya, British diplomats turned a blind eye to fraud, intimidation and rigging with bland words such as 'the result broadly reflected the will of the Kenyan people'. They claimed the margin of victory was so great that the cheating did not affect the result. Maybe, but this time the margin was close and the cheating did matter. Britain did little between elections to push for a fully independent electoral commission. It couldn't - Britain's own elections are run by the Home Office. Instead, it poured aid into Kenya, even after members of the Moi and Kibaki governments were seen stealing hundreds of millions of pounds in broad daylight.
Ever since it bought into the aid agency view of Africa - 'all Africa needs is aid' - the British government has carefully reduced its capacity for understanding the continent. You do not, it seems, need to understand the poor in order to save them. In 2005, the 'Year of Africa', it closed three embassies on the continent and abolished Foreign Office country desk officers who built the institutional memory of specific countries. Unless you understand Africa and how it works, you cannot help it.
This ignorance and lack of respect not only led to Britain's disastrous isolation over Zimbabwe - what Britain sees as a moral crusade is perceived in Africa and elsewhere as a spat between Mugabe and British Prime Ministers. And instead of Britain or Europe sending an envoy to explore the possibilities for peacemaking, it is America's Jendayi Fraser, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, who has flown into Nairobi.
·

Richard Dowden is the director of the Royal African Society
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

President Rayale's editorial in the Washington Times

I believe that day is not far off, but when it happens there will be no lowering of flags, just an acceptance of history:
On this day 47 years ago, the Union Jack came down on a remote corner of Africa and the former protectorate of British Somaliland, with its capital in Hargeisa, gained independence.
It was a day of celebration. Freedom had been granted without a fight; no insurgency like Kenya's Mau Mau or civil war as happened in Zimbabwe. Alas, all that and worse would follow, but in 1960, Somaliland was seen as a place of promise, where races, religions and people from different backgrounds got on well. Indeed, many of the British civil servants were sad to leave and some stayed on as welcome members of our new republic.
A week later, we entered into voluntary union with the former Italian Somaliland to the south, creating Somalia with its capital in Mogadishu, but today the old boundaries are back and, while we can't undo the past, we must learn from it.
So, please, allow me a few paragraphs while I chronicle what happened, because those events have shaped the way I and my people view the present.
Somalia got off to a good start, but the 1960s and 1970s were a tough time for democracy and all too soon we found ourselves ruled by a military dictator.
One by one, our freedoms disappeared. Media fell under state control; opposition parties were banned; critics vanished in the night and those who came back were scarred by torture. English — our second language in the North — was spurned by the Italian-speaking south; all power went to Mogadishu and, by the 1980s, Somaliland had became a poor relation with run-down schools, little investment and no say in how the country was run.
In 1985, the North known today as the Republic of Somaliland sought to regain its independence and so began a war of liberation. The late dictator Siad Barre, who ruled Somalia at the time, responded by bombing whole towns and villages and, when that did not turn the people of Somaliland, his army lined up thousands of civilians along the banks of the Maroodijeex river that flows through Hargeisa and opened fire on them with machine guns. The skeletons are still there, just below the sand. When Barre was overthrown in 1991, Somalia fell into chaos. The United States tried to help and President Clinton sent troops, but it was too little, too late. Unwilling to be trapped in a failed state, the former British Somaliland retook its independence on May 18, 1991, and, 16 years on, the peace and prosperity we had hoped for in 1960 is back on track.
Historically, our marriage with the South wasn't that long when you think of countries like Czechoslovakia, which lasted almost a century before creating the Czech and Slovak republics. But like the nations of Eastern Europe that split from the Soviet Union, or Eritrea in its break from Ethiopia, the divorce is permanent and this is the key to understanding Somaliland.
f the South — still known as Somalia — underwent a miracle and became as stable as Botswana, as prosperous as Singapore and as democratic as South Africa, we would not go back into union. The two countries might work closely together, like the United States and Canada, but our independence will never be on the table.
This is not rhetoric. In a 2001 we held a referendum on the subject in which almost a million people voted; 97 percent endorsed the split. We were separate for 80 years as a British protectorate, gained our independence with the Queen's signature on it, and have been on our own again for almost two decades. What remains is for the world to recognize our legal status as they did in 1960. This process requires a few robust states to follow up on the positive African Union 2005 fact-finding report on Somaliland. Rwanda and Ghana appear to be leading by example.
I believe that day is not far off, but when it happens there will be no lowering of flags, just an acceptance of history: that at midnight on 26 June 1960, Somaliland joined the family of nations as a free country in charge of its destiny. And that's how we remain, with the bonus that in 2007 we have a real democracy and the kind of peace and prosperity that offers hope in a region where the even the word has long been out of use. That, surely, is cause for celebration.
Dahir Riyale Kahin is president of the Republic of Somaliland.

Source The Washington Times Editorial:
Last Updated ( Jan 06, 2008 at 01:39 AM )

President Rayale will be travelling to US

Hargeysa, Somaliland, December 29, 2007 (SL Times) – According to sources close to Somaliland’s ministry of the Presidency, President Dahir Rayale Kahin will be travelling in the first week of January 2008 to the US capital Washington, D.C to hold talks with the US government on issues relating to US and Somaliland relations.
The unofficial source disclosed to SL Times that the US state department has invited president Rayale for an official visit to the US to hold talks with state department officials in Washington D.C.
Up to now, there has not been any public comment from Somaliland government officials to back this unofficial report of the visit or the invitation from Washington.

U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia , Donald Y. Yamamoto
Nonetheless, speculation on the president’s US trip gained momentum early in the week, when reports of a ministerial Somaliland delegation that left on Monday for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to hold talks with the US ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr Donald Y. Yamamoto.
US ambassador, Donald Yamamoto, held an official dinner party for the Somaliland delegation on Tuesday night at his private residence. The delegation was comprised of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Abdillahi M Duale, the Minister of Justice, Mr Ahmed H. Ali, the Minister of Health, Mr Abdi H. Muhamad, Deputy Vice Minister of Planning, Mr Ahmed H. Abdi and the private secretary of the President, Mr Ahmed M Esse.
The delegation’s meeting with ambassador Yamamoto was made known on Thursday by Somaliland’s presidential spokesman, Mr Saeed Adani, who issued a press release giving details of the delegation and the meetings conducted with Ethiopian and US embassy officials.
The press statement said that the Somaliland ministerial delegation, led by the Foreign Minister, Mr Duale, along with the Somaliland Addis consulate staff were, on Tuesday night, the official guests of the US ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr Donald Yamamoto who held at his residence an official dinner for the Somaliland delegation.
The press statement did not elaborate on what was discussed in the meeting, but briefly mentioned that the delegation discussed with Ambassador Yamamoto matters relating to peace and security in the region, as well as strengthening the good rapport and friendship established over the years between the two countries.

Source: Somaliland Times

Happ New Year

In Praise of Somaliland

In Praise of Somaliland
A Beacon of Hope in the Thorn of Africa
by Peter Tatchell
THIS year’s civil war in Somalia has killed thousands of people and created over half a million refugees. Democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights are almost non-existent in Mogadishu, where war, banditry, corruption, hunger, illiteracy, disease and unemployment are the norm. Somalia is a failed state that has failed its people.
In contrast, the north-west breakaway region of the Republic of Somaliland is an oasis of peace, stability and progress in the Horn of Africa. Imperfect, but moving in the right direction, in May this year the country celebrated its sixteenth anniversary of independence.
Against all odds, and with little international recognition or aid, the three million people of Somaliland have – largely by their own efforts – begun to establish a secure, functioning democratic state and a fair degree of economic stability and growth. This is a truly remarkable achievement in a region of Africa that has long been a byword for chaos, repression and war.
Somaliland, a former British Protectorate, gained independence in 1960 and became the first free Somali nation to join the United Nations.
In a unity move that most Somalilanders now deeply regret, the country joined with the former Italian protectorate to the south to form the Republic of Somalia.
Under the dictator Siad Barre, who seized power in a military coup in 1969, the new nation was beset by brutality. Following the collapse of his military regime and of the Somali state, Somali-land declared independence on 18th May 1991.
Over the last decade and a half, the predominantly Muslim nation has made the transition from an autocratic clan-based society, notorious for its poor governance, conflict and human rights abuses, to a peaceful and progressive multi-party democracy.
A referendum in 2001 led to the adoption of a new constitution. Since then, Somalilanders have held successful elections for President, the House of Representatives and local government. While Somalia has not had a free election since the 1960s, Somaliland has held three mandates since the turn of the millennium, each of which has been declared free and fair by international election observers.
In contrast to the intestinal conflicts that bedevil Somalia and many other African nations, Somaliland has found a way to negotiate and resolve these rivalries peacefully. It has bought previously hostile clans together in a pluralistic system that minimises conflict by incorporating the clan elders into the advisory upper house.
Somalilanders have achieved an enviable peace, progressively disarming and demobilising thousands of gunmen, while in Somalia militias still run amok, looting, extorting and terrorising the local population. Many of Somaliland’s former clan fighters have also been successfully incorporated into the disciplined national army. And unlike many of her neighbours, the armed forces stay out of politics.
Moreover, Somaliland is country committed to the rule of law, upheld by an independent judiciary. Discrimina-tion on the grounds of ethnicity, gender or opinion is prohibited, and human rights abuses, such as torture, are criminal offences. The right to protest is protected by law.
Somaliland is not yet a fully-fledged democracy, and its unwavering observance of human rights is still a long way off. Somaliland has a multi-party system but only three political parties are allowed under the constitution. Islam is the state religion, and while non-Islamic faiths are tolerated, their promotion is prohibited. Muslims are not permitted to renounce Islam, and the legal system is based on Sharia law. Although rarely enforced with harshness, this does nevertheless place inherent restrictions of the rights of women. The female sex is poorly represented in public life and state institutions, although the constitution does give women the right to employment training and property ownership. Government corruption and inefficiency are not as bad as in many other African nations, but they remain a problem according to critics of the regime.
Somaliland’s significantly improved record on human rights suffered a setback earlier this year with the arrest of four journalists from the independent newspaper Haatuf. They were only released at the end of March, after being detained for 86 days on charges of allegedly spreading false information and offending the President. This worrying abuse of press freedom was, however, an exceptional curtailment of what is nowadays a fairly open and free media.
Despite these flaws, Somalilanders have demonstrated, without any pressure from the West, that a Muslim country can build a peaceful, democratic state committed to upholding human rights. It is a model for Africa and the Middle East.
Yet Somaliland remains unrecognised as a sovereign nation. While the United Nations and the international community focus their attention on the civil war in Somalia, Somaliland’s achievement in building a stable, harmonious nation is unacknowledged and unrewarded. Betrayed by the Arab League and the African Union, it stands alone.
Instead of singularly condemning Africa’s failures, isn’t it time the West did more to recognise and support its successes?
Sweden and Germany are moving towards diplomatic recognition, but not Britain. Somaliland wants to join the Commonwealth but has so far been rebuffed. This rejection sends all the wrong signals.
It is time Britain changed course. We should push the Commonwealth and the European Union to recognise Somaliland as an independent, sovereign state; and lobby the African Union, the Arab League and the United Nations to do likewise. A modest increase in British and EU aid and trade would go a long way to strengthen Somaliland’s economic base. Tackling poverty and unemployment, and improving health, education and housing, would help underpin and enhance Somaliland’s development as a beacon in the region. Over to you, Gordon Brown.
Peter Tatchell is a leading human rights campaigner.
For more information about his work, visit http://www.petertatchell.net/.