Going It Alone. Interview
In May 1991, Somaliland seceded from Somalia and has been distancing itself from that war-torn nation ever since.
Under its new president, Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal, Somaliland has demobilized the militia and reopened the main road in an area virtually destroyed in the war against the dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre. In diplomatic and economic isolation, the Egal government is consolidating its position, planning to set up a simple but effective administration and impose an extended period of austerity.
Africa Report: You were once among the architects of Somali unity in 1960. Now you are the champion of Somaliland's independence. How do you explain your conversion?
Egal: In 1960, we were first to win our independence even before Mogadishu--and there was a very fierce debate. I was one of the people who said let us wait until the British and the italians leave, and then we Somalis on our own can decide on our own form of union. But people were so enamored of the idea of unification that they insisted on taking the first step. So this was an experimental nature. We united with Somalia and the idea of a Greater Somalia was accepted. We were at loggerheads with Kenya, with France over Djibouti, and we fought two years with Ethiopia.
Then in 1969, the Russians staged a coup d'etat and established a military regime under Siad and it became one of the most vicious and brutal dictatorships Africa had ever seen. Those Somalis who were outside the borders of Somalia. when they saw the brutal dictatorship, became grateful that they were not part of the dictator's fief and they reconciled themselves to whatever government was ruling them. Djibouti took its independence and stayed out. The idea of Greater Somalia died with the dictatorship. along with its own victims.
Watching events in Mogadishu (in 1991-92). I realized that, for two reasons. secession for Somaliland was the best thing that could have happened: first, because the experiment of 1960 had failed. If ever there was going to be another attempt to resuscitate the sentiment of the 1960s, then the experiment would have to start somewhere other than Mogadishu. The worst thing that could be done to the Somali people would be to try to force them--as Boutros-Ghali was doing--to form a union. because what was happening in Mogadishu would be happening everywhere. We are peaceful. We are trying to build a nation here. But if we are forced into any association with these warlords, then warlords will appear here too.
Secondly, if we hadn't done so, then today we would be under the control of a man like Aidid, a megalomaniac interested only in power and nothing else. Nothing will satisfy him until he becomes president. And if he becomes president of Somalia, then may God have mercy on all Somalis.
Africa Report: Somaliland's first president, Abdirahman "Tuur," seems to have taken center-stage in Mogadishu at the head of a delegation to discuss a federal arrangement for Somalia, including Somaliland.
Egal: They have not taken center-stage. They are being hired, instigated by UNOSOM, in order to give a semblance of reality to a new mirage that they are trying to sell to the international community. Aidid is a man who had a price on his head: UNOSOM had put a price on his head. Hundreds of people have died because he was being hunted and UNOSOM was trying to arrest him. Now, all of a sudden, he has become the risen Christ. The recruitment of Tuur is part of that mirage. that new theory of [new Special Representative of the Secretary General] Ambassador Gbeho, whose only interest is prolonging the mandate of UNOSOM for another six months so that he'll have the chance to spend another $500 million of the international community's money.
Africa Report: So there is no federal future for Somalia and Somaliland?
Egal: The federal solution never had any future. The culture of the people would not accommodate a federal system. We are a pastoral, nomadic people who are very individualistic and very independent. No federal governor of a state will accept the fiat of a central authority in the capital. It is a fiction being propagated in Mogadishu by people whose interest is this idea of UNOSOM which has become a gimmick for people to enrich themselves. The whole basis of thought in Mogadishu now is just to get a six-month extension of the mandate and the budget. It never moves beyond that. These people lock themselves in rooms and think up fictitious scenarios that they think might be acceptable to the Security Council in New York. But it has no basis in reality, nothing.
Africa Report: But Somaliland's hope for recognition has found little sympathy with the international community. Do you see an end to your people's isolation?
Egal: I have made a few visit here and there. I have just come back from Cairo, trying to explain the realities of Somalia and Somaliland. But I have to finish my homework before I can embark on concerted efforts to seek recognition from the international community. We are now in the process of demobilizing the militia, in evicting them from Hargeisa airport and returning it to the hands of the government. We have just opened the main road from Hargeisa to Berbera, and we are now in the middle of establishing our regional administrations. We are very much handicapped by lack of resources, but my government has to establish itself as being completely in control of the country before we can embark upon an international campaign for recognition. I think that within the next month or two we will be able to say that we have the country in our hands, and then we can set about getting recognition from outside.
Africa Report: You have recently expelled UNOSOM from Somaliland. Why?
Egal: Because they have reneged on everything. The only good thing to happen to UNOSOM was Admiral Howe. He had his own handicaps, but lack of sincerity wasn't one of them. Unfortunately the rot was taking hold from underneath him even when he was here. When he was sent back to New York, everything he had promised me was thrown out of the window. So UNOSOM has never really contributed anything. They were paying 1,750 policemen for the whole country. According to our own plans, we need about 3,700 to cover six regions including about 18 districts. They were supposed to have repaired our courts and paid our justices. They were promising that for so long, and then only last month they came up with another brilliant excuse. They said: "You call yourselves 'chief justices' and 'supreme courts' and if we pay for them, it will be an act of recognition of Somaliland." That's after six months of reneging on their promises. They were supposed to have rehabilitated all the jails, to have re-equipped the police force even the 1,750 they were paying $100 a month each--with transport and telecommunications and so forth, but nothing came of it. In fact they were here only to disrupt. They had agents. The money and resources they should have given to the government they were using to sabotage the efforts of the government. And we are much better off without them. We have lost $290,000 a month they were paying and 1 think we can do without that. The damages they were doing were much more. They have paid Tuur and his group 10 times as much as they have paid the two years they were here with us. So we are much better off without UNOSOM.
Africa Report: Critics argue that Somaliland represents only Isaaq interests. What about the voices of minority groups?
Egal: Over three months ago, I informed the Security Council, the U.S. State Department, and several heads of state here that I was prepared to hold a referendum, in order to dispel this idea that the minorities were being overruled. I explained that approval of secession would be by not less than 70 percent of the vote. If not, we will renounce union and go back to Somalia, which means that the minority will be the deciding factor. Not only the entire Isaaq group, which is supposed to be about 60 percent of the population, but at least 10 percent of the minorities would have to vote for secession. The British ambassador in Addis Ababa conveyed to me the response of the Security Council that this was the appropriate time for a referendum, that they will neither encourage nor support one. Before that, the reason was that secession was not acceptable to all of the people of Somaliland. So I don't know what to tell them: They tell us one thing and then when we accept that, they change their minds.
Africa Report: Your government has virtually no revenue or resources. How long can you go on living hand-to-mouth?
Egal: We are consolidating our position at home. I think we will be able to struggle. If we establish an effective administration within the country, the kind we used to know before independence--a very simple administrative method like the Anglo-Indian administrative method. [t was invented for an illiterate community, it's corruption-proof and very efficient. It can be run by clerks who have been through elementary school. If we can establish such a system, and we can collect revenue from the country, then we will be able to sustain at least our recurrent expenses, in a skeletal form, for several years. We will not develop the country, we will not rebuild our ruined infrastructure, but I think we can subsist as a government. And judging by what the international community's doing, from how they've turned their backs upon us, we will have to prepare ourselves for an extended period of austerity. We are pinning our hopes on a very quick response.
Africa Report: Are the people ready for such a period of austerity?
Egal: We are a nomadic people. We don't ask much of life. I think they are ready; not in the sense that they will fast every other day, but their needs are so limited. Luxury belongs to our aspirations for the future. And this is not something we are doing by choice. We are forced to do it, because the attitude of the international community is: "We've done everything we could for the Somalis, but they are intractable. Let them stew in their own hell." We have to be prepared for that.
Africa Report: When you leave office what do you hope to leave for your successor?
Egal: I would like to leave behind a united country. He will not inherit from me the abject fortunes of Mogadishu. He will inherit a people with their own pride intact, who feel that they are proudly carrying out a mission. A little hungry perhaps, but proud. And if I leave that, after two years in office, I will be a very happy man.
Africa Report: Will you stay on for another term of office?
Egal: According to the National Charter, I have the option to ask for a six-month extension, and that's the limit I will go. I won't go beyond that.
Matt Bryden has been living and working in Somalia since 1990. He has worked for various NGOs, the UN, and as adviser to the Canadian ambassador to Somalia.
