Washington, D.C. — Mohamoud Saleh Nur, Foreign Minister of Somaliland, the tiny self-proclaimed northern republic that broke away from Somalia in 1991, predicts that the Djibouti Peace and Reconciliation Conference that ended in August, will bring neither. "You cannot sit in Djibouti and say, 'I am the government.' It will not work."
The conference attracted more than 2000 participants but few of the leaders of Somalia's warring clans. The gathering established an interim 245-person parliament and elected Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, a former member of the Siad Barre administration, as interim President. Today, Mr. Hassan appointed businessman and University professor Ali Khalif Galaid as prime Minister.
Although these developments have been widely applauded in the international community; ambassadors from the U.S., Egypt and the Sudan were among those who attended Salad Hassan's brief swearing-in ceremony, Mr. Nur notes there have been twelve previous attempts to restore a central authority to Somalia since 1991. All have failed as clans throughout southern Somalia continued to fight bitterly and brutally for power.
"We had no option in order to save three and one-half million inhabitants in Somaliland, but to revert back to our pre 1960 status, when we were deciding whether to become independent or whether to enter into union with Somalia. We voluntarily entered into that union but it is a failed state."
In the Foreign Minister's view this latest peace effort from Djibouti will lead to increased conflict in the South that threatens surrounding nations as well as Somaliland. "In the South it was a rush for power, after Siad Barre. It is still a rush for power."
The Foreign Minister traveled to Washington and New York seeking support for Somaliland being given the kind of "special status" given to Kosovo and East Timor by the United Nations. There's been no committment from either the UN or Clinton administration to that position. However, claims Mr. Nur, there is "grudging respect," for Somaliland's stability.
