By Osman Hassan

The one-clan secessionist enclave calling itself Somaliland never misses an opportunity to reveal its bigotry and xenophobia often shooting itself on the foot. Pathological hatred towards Somalia and other Somalis sadly is the gospel that drives their secession at every level. The latest manifestation of their siege mentality and intolerance is the imprisonment of four singers on their return to Hargeisa from Mogadishu, a deplorable act that has drawn worldwide attention. The singers’ contrived crime is for visiting what is technically their capital, Mogadishu, and entertaining their fans – fellow Somali brothers and sisters who care only about Somali music and have no animosity towards their fellow Somalis in the enclave.

Even in the worst days of Apartheid, white South Africa did not criminalise white or black singers entertaining one side or the other. The backlash from this shocking incident has reverberated around the world and unmasked the true nature of the enclave not so much representing an oasis of peace and democracy as its advocates and hired foreign propagandists had falsely painted it over the years but as a paranoid authoritarian entity. Far from damaging Somalia, they only brought immense damage upon themselves.

The enclave pompously and boastfully claims to be more respectful of the rule of law and human rights than what they see as lawless strife-torn Somalia, which they consider another country and their worst enemy only because it opposes their secession. And yet, here they are once again showing their true colours in incarcerating the singers without due process of law, thus trampling on their fundamental human rights as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which the enclave professes to uphold. We would need to remind ourselves the salient points of UDHR relevant to the current case of the singers and others who do not subscribe to the secession of the enclave but feel gagged to condemn it:

Article 13states: “Everybody has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State”

The right to freedom of movement within Somalia, as the internationally recognized State, which of course includes Somaliland, cannot be abrogated by any entity, clan, or region in Somalia, least of all a rebel one-clan secessionist enclave recognized by no single country. The enclave therefore is in violation of this fundamental human right of freedom of movement. Other articles in UDHR, such as the following, also protect freedom of thought, opinion and expression of those who do not subscribe to the ideology of the secession.

Article 18 states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion…”

Article 19 states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression….without any interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

Article 27 states: “Everyone has the right to freely to participate in the cultural life of the community…” i.e. Somali community wherever they may be.

It was only days later, following worldwide outcry, and after the enclave was shamed, that the singers were released without charge. Those not familiar with the enclave may think this was perhaps an aberration and not typical of the place. It is not. It is the norm rather than the exception. As it is, journalists, unionist politicians, human rights activists and even clan leaders are routinely imprisoned for exercising their fundamental rights to speak their minds which may not be to the liking of the authority. Despite its sham democracy, in reality anyone can be detained at the behest and whims of the so-called Minister of the Interior, Waran Cade, who is none other than Siyad Barre’s former henchman in the notorious NSS (National Security Services).

For Somaliland, any normal association between its people and those in the rest of Somalia, in particular Mogadishu is given gratuitous political overtones and stigmatised even when that association is simply cultural or normal social intercourse. Such actions are considered treason, fearing they could usher the beginning of the end of their secession. For this reason, banishment and arbitrary imprisonment, often when no actual crimes were committed as with the singers’ case, are used to deter those who might breach the enclave’s written or unwritten codes of conduct vis-à-vis Somalia.

Such is the enclave’s blinding animus towards Somalia, imbibed over the years since their declaration of secession, and used as a ploy to sustain the secession and to create an irreversible divide between them and the rest of Somalia, that even basic humanitarian compassions are denied to those running away from conflict, contrary to international humanitarian law. That was the case when a boatload of refugees, comprising Yemenis, Somalis, Ethiopians and others docked at Berbera port in desperate condition.

The authorities allowed all other nationalities to disembark from the boat. The exception were Somalia nationals, mostly mothers with their babies deeply traumatised by the Yemeni war – all hungry, thirsty and suffering Berbera’s unbearable heat. The reason for their exclusion was because they belonged to clans hailing from Southern Somalia. Some desperate mothers threatened to throw themselves into the sea with their children rather than be sent back to the hell in Yemen they had run away from. As with the case with the singers, the authority relented after an worldwide outcry, both foreign and domestic.

The authority in Hargeisa was forced to back down on both cases- the singers and the Somali refugee returnees at Berbera – only because they could no longer ignore international opprobrium that their actions unleashed. But in other cases, where they don’t face such pressures, they commit widespread human rights violations and crimes against humanity and get away with it. Such is the case in the regions of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) which they occupied in 2007. To the enclaves great satisfaction, neither the Somali Government headed by Hassan Sheikh nor the Special Representative of the United Nations in Somalia, Mr Nicholas Kay, are critical of their crimes in the SSC regions. Even if Hassan Sheikh is president only in name with no power, as two MPs divulged the other day at a Universal TV discussion in Mogadishu, and hence has no military power to rid the country of the secessionists, at least he could speak up and condemn their criminal actions. But then that is too much to expect from him given that only issues that are of personal financial or political gain matter to him.

As for the UN SRSG, Mr Nicholas Kay, he is, according to these MPs, the real power in the country. Human rights and the rule of law throughout Somalia are the two most important pillars of his mandate. Instead, he is busy, as the MPs said, micromanaging the set-up of clan-based federal States, almost all independent of Mogadishu and more or less tutelages of their mentors – Ethiopia and Kenya. The north, namely former British Somaliland, is left for Hargeisa as de facto another separate country. This looks like a repeat of the late 19th Century partitioning of the Somali homeland in the Horn, only this time it is Somalia itself which is being balkanised under the guise of federalism. In his scheme of things, defence of human rights does not seem to matter.

Whatever the SRSG is up to, which could make or break Somalia, the defence of the fundamental human rights of the SSC people seems to have no place in his order of priorities. With no help from him or the sham Somali Government, as the MPs would call it, the SSC people under Khatumo can only rely on themselves to liberate their regions and defeat the secession.

Osman Hassan
Email: osman.hassan2 @gmail.com
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Osman Hassan is a seasoned journalist and a former UN staff member. Mr Hassan is also a regular contributor to WardheerNews.