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THE COUNTRY THAT DOES EXIST |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Tuesday, 22 February 2011 |
Berbera, Somaliland. I originally called this place the country
that doesn't exist, because no other
country in the world will diplomatically recognize it as a sovereign nation
even though it's been so for 20 years.
Nonetheless, this is a real country with a sovereign
functioning government. This is no
pariah-outlaw state. That's Somalia,
the truly non-existent failed state that Somaliland
seceded from. The story of Somaliland
is a heroic saga, epically inspirational.
Let me tell you the story.
Strategically located at the entrance to the Red
Sea, the Brits made a deal with local Somali sultans in the 1880s
to establish a protectorate called British Somaliland. The purpose was to protect the Brits' colony
of Aden (southern Yemen),
which was critical for the supply route to British India. The marvelous natural harbor
of Berbera was perfect for this.
After World War I, roads were built and towns established in
the nomadic hinterlands beyond the coast.
This continued after WWII, and by 1960, Britain
granted independence to the place as the State of Somaliland. It lasted five days.
The rest of what is Somalia
had been Italy's
colony of Italian Somaliland. The Brits conquered it during WWII, then
handed it over in 1949 to Italy's
post-fascist government administered as the Trust Territory of Somalia. When Italy
granted it independence in 1960 five days after Somaliland,
the Brits "persuaded" the latter to unify with the former into the merged Republic
of Somalia with the capital at Mogadishu. Somalilanders have regretted their
acquiescence ever since.
Somehow the brainless Brits allowed the Soviets to establish
a military relationship with Somalia
instead of with them. By 1969, KGB
agents had sufficiently indoctrinated a cadre of Somali officers led by their
commanding general Siad Barre to organize a coup and install Barre as the head
of the ruling Supreme Revolutionary Council.
Portraits of Marx, Lenin, and Barre appeared everywhere, and
a full-on (thanks to "ehoppe" on the Forum I get to use this term as much as I
want now) Communist dictatorship.
With massive Soviet aid, Barre quickly built a huge
well-equipped army, and started talking about "Greater Somalia" which included
large chunks of his neighbors' territory populated by ethnic Somalis - in
particular the Ogaden region of Ethiopia and northeastern Kenya.
In 1977, Barre invaded the Ogaden, routing the surprised
Ethiopians and capturing it all. Big
mistake. He forgot that the Soviets were
also behind the new Marxist government of Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia,
which was a vastly bigger prize for them than Somalia
(just like we saw in The Black Norks of
Eritrea).
So the Soviets betrayed Barre just like they did Afewerki in
Eritrea, and
sent in 15,000 Cuban troops to kick Barre's army out of the Ogaden. Outraged, Barre expelled the Soviets and
declared he wanted to be friends with America. Jimmy Carter complied even though Barre remained
a murderous dictator.
In 1981, shortly after Ronald Reagan became president, a
Somali National Movement was formed in Somaliland and
began guerrilla attacks on Barre government targets operating out of nearby Djibouti. The SNM declared it was fighting for a
Western-style representative democracy with human rights and freedom of speech.
The SNM guerrillas were increasingly successful during the
1980s while Barre became increasingly more brutal, culminating in his 1988
aerial bombardment of Somaliland's main city, Hargeisa, turning it into rubble
and killing tens of thousands of people.
Here is what the city looked like:
It was Barre's last gasp.
By the end of 1990, the SNM was in total control of Somaliland
and Barre's army in full retreat. When a
collection of warlords captured Mogadishu
and Somalia
collapsed into anarchy in January 1991, the SNM declared Somaliland
to be independent. Barre fled first to Kenya,
then Nigeria
where he died in 1995.
Thus for the last 20 years, Somaliland
has been independent, free, and sovereign, with its own government, laws,
courts, police, army, and a full panoply of governmental institutions. Yet not one single country or international
organization will recognize its sovereignty, pretending instead it's actually
and legally part of Somalia
- so it's cut off from the global economy, from international banking,
insurance, and trade.
It's time for this charade to be over. In the past week, I drove all over Somaliland
and found it to be peaceful and safe.
Somalilanders are impoverished because of their forced isolation, yet
are determined to keep their freedom.
The symbol of this determination is a MiG fighter jet that
the SNM was able to bring down during the 1988 bombardment. It rests on a plinth in the center of
downtown Hargeisa:
Paintings on the base graphically depict the butchery of
Siad Barre:
Somalilanders have built their country from scratch,
literally from rubble all by themselves.
There are 3.6 million Somalilanders in the country and another 900,000
in a diaspora spread through the Middle East, Europe,
and the US who
send an average of $150 a month back home to their families.
That totals around $130 million a month, which supports the
country and keeps it afloat - barely.
With no international recognition or banking, the Somaliland
shilling is over 4,000 to the US dollar.
Here's a typical money changer in the Hargeisa market:
A lot of Somalilanders are still nomads with herds of
camels. Here's a nomad portable home:
And their camels:
More and more of them want to have a decent life in
town. So you see nice homes being built
with diaspora money:
Somaliland could easily be
prosperous. Berbera is a large protected
natural harbor astride one of the world's most important sea lanes. The port, half-built by the Soviets,
half-built by the US in the 70s, serves large container ships and could be a
real money-maker:
Especially so because Africa's second
largest country in population with over 80 million people is right next door
and is landlocked: Ethiopia. Right now, Djibouti
provides Ethiopia's
only access to the sea and can charge extortionate taxes. Somaliland's taxes are
low. Expanding Berbera's port facilities
and building a good highway through Hargeisa to the border would seem a
no-brainer. But Somaliland
is unable to acquire the financing.
The same for the airport.
The Soviets built Africa's longest runway in
Berbera. Kuwait
has kicked in a tiny $10 million to improve the airport, but nobody has done
anything else:
Here is the beach at Berbera. There's great diving and fishing.
Note the black sand.
That's oil residue. Petroleum
geologists are convinced that Somaliland has fairly
substantial oil and gas reserves right offshore - but again, no recognition
means no development.
Somalilanders are friendly folk - like this old gent with
his beard stained with henna:
Or these kids:
Or these young ladies:
Somalilanders are Moslems, no doubt about it - but you are
informed often, "We are Sufis, not Salafis," meaning they ascribe to the mystic
and peaceful form of Islam (Sufism), not the fundamentalist form that wants a
medieval Islam (Salafism).
Which means Somaliland women
traditionally do not cover their faces - and they love to dress colorfully:
Note her cell phone.
Somalilanders love to trade and do business. The government's Minster of Commerce, Adan
Elmi Ahmed, told me, "We have low taxes and only necessary regulation. We have a pro-business investment policy with
dependable courts, enforceable contracts, and rule of law. We do not allow bribes. Most of all, we love competition. We like choices, variety, and cheap prices -
with competition you get all three."
A local businessman, Moustapha Osman Guelle, confirmed
this. A graduate of Oxford
in England, he
has started a beverage company and has just acquired the Coca Cola bottling
franchise for Somaliland. "This is the most pro-free enterprise country
in Africa," he told me.
It's also arguably the most democratic. Somaliland six months
ago had its third free and fair election.
The then-president, Dahir Riyale Kahin, was defeated by the opposition
party candidate, Ahmed Mahamoud Silanyo - whereupon Mr. Kahin stepped down and
wished his successor well.
So - here we have a peaceful, stable, secure country carved
out of the most failed state on the planet, a Sufi Moslem democracy that's
solidly pro-freedom and pro-capitalist, that wants to participate in the modern
global economy and not retreat from it, that wants to be the ally of America
and the West in one of the world's most strategic places.
This is flat-out heroic.
You'd think America
would recognize Somaliland in a heartbeat, that the US
military would already have a major naval base and air station at Berbera, that
US business
would be encouraged to invest. But
no. For 20 years it's been no. Why?
Two reasons. One is
the fear that recognition of Somaliland as a separate
nation from Somalia
would open the floodgates of African disintegration.
Most African countries are make-believe colonial
constructs. If one succeeds in breaking
apart, the argument goes, dozens could follow with all political hell breaking
loose. Only one secessionist region has
been granted formal sovereign recognition - Eritrea
from Ethiopia -
but the international community then said no more.
Until now. The
largest (in size) African country, Sudan
- one million square miles, as large as the entire United
States east of the Mississippi
River - is breaking apart.
Black Christian & Animist South Sudan
is gaining its full independence from Arab Moslem North Sudan
after decades of horrific Moslem slaughter of the southerners. Independence Day is scheduled for this coming
July
9.
At last, with South Sudan there's no
more excuses for non-recognition of Somaliland. But that won't stop Egypt. The second reason is Egypt's
hatred and fear of Ethiopia. Anything that strengthens Ethiopia,
Egypt is
against it. That's because of the Blue
Nile.
There are two Nile Rivers - the White originating out of Lake
Victoria in Uganda,
and the Blue originating out of Lake Tana in Ethiopia
- which meet in Khartoum to form
the Nile that flows through Egypt. The Blue provides substantially more water
than the White, so the Egyptians freak out at any hint of Ethiopian designs to
dam or control its flow.
A few years ago, Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi floated just
such a plan and received a prompt message from Hosni Mubarak: "Over my dead body. Any attempt to tamper with the waters of the Blue
Nile means war with Egypt."
What's this got to do with Somaliland? Egypt
wants Somalia
to remain anarchic and a thorn in Ethiopia's
side. An independent Somaliland
with a flourishing "Berbera Corridor" allowing a flow of goods in and out of Ethiopia
is not in Egypt's
perceived interests. So Cairo
squashes any diplomatic effort at Somaliland
recognition.
With Mubarak overthrown, Cairo
is in no position to squash anything.
Which is why Somaliland President Mahamoud Silanyo and his wife, First
Lady Asmina, have been invited to Washington
next month for talks at the State Department.
I had an audience with First Lady Asmina, and found her to
be impressively smart and sharp. Somaliland
has a solid asset in her. Here we are:
I was fortunate enough to meet another impressive Somaliland
woman. Sada Mire (sah-da mee-ray) was born in the desert to a nomad family. Her father was conscripted into Said Barre's
army and they moved to Mogadishu. When Barre fell, they had to escape the
anarchy by walking much of the way a thousand desert miles back to Hargeisa,
where she and her sister were granted refugee status to Sweden.
She was such a bright student she got a scholarship to study
in England
where she received her doctorate in archeology from the University
of London. She currently teaches there, and leads
expeditions to Somaliland, discovering over 100
archeological sites. Recently she was
named Director of Archeology for the government of Somaliland.
She was kind enough to take us on a personal tour of the
extraordinary 7,000 year-old rock art site of Las Gheel. It will obviously qualify as a World Heritage
Site once Somaliland gets international
recognition. Here's a small sample:
That's Sada explaining the rock art, but here's a better
picture:
Sorry, guys, she's happily married.
The people we met, from folks and kids on the street to
Moustapha to First Lady Asmina to Sada and so many others, are so proud of the
country they have created, of their freedom and democracy. I didn't sense any bitterness or resentment
towards the world for not recognizing their existence - just bewilderment.
Yet they are sure their days, their decades, of invisibility
in the world will soon come to an end. Somaliland
will, they are confident, will take its earned place among the nations.
2011 is turning out to be a revolutionary year - to the
overthrow of dictators in Tunisia,
Egypt, and
looks like Libya
is next, to the overthrow of Democrat Party-public union bankrupting corruption
starting in Wisconsin.
The revolution in Somaliland ended 20
years ago. 2011 should be the year this
heroic country should be invited to join the world.
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