What Somaliland asks of the International Community
During an informal visit to Canada in May 2008, Somaliland MP Nasir Hagi Ali spoke before the Canadian Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. He asked that Canada establish an office in Somaliland to regulate and improve the flow of Somalilanders traveling between Canada and Somaliland and that Canada be supportive in granting visiting visas for official Somaliland politicians who desire to travel in order to promote their nation’s existence and needs.[15]
More generally, Somaliland asks the international community to be recognized as a sovereign state. They understand that the isolation they have experienced was central to their development in both positive and negative ways. For instance, the fact that they cannot receive bilateral technical assistance from other countries; and that the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank, and bilateral development agencies cannot offer it loans and financial aid has meant that they have total ownership over every step of their path to stabilization. The time has come, however, when the disadvantages outnumber the advantages.
Banks and insurance companies will not establish branches within the country; the cost of living is higher because local firms cannot directly import goods without local banks to issue letters of credit; international investors (and the jobs that they would create) stay away because insurance and other investment protections are lacking. Many diasporic professionals—whose return would help to invigorate Somaliland’s legal, accounting, health, and educational systems—are reluctant to come home for fear of Somaliland’s uncertain legal status.
Finally, the threat of continued unrest, factional fighting, or an increase in terrorist activities in the south will continue to hamper Somaliland’s development as long as its future is held hostage to events in Somalia.
What International Players Have Done Thus Far
When François Lonseny Fall, the UN Special Representative to Somalia, was asked to comment about the status of Somaliland in 2006, he said that Somaliland was part of his mandate, that it had declared its independence, but that recognition
of said independence was “up to all United Nations Member States.”[16] This statement came after years of the UN refusing to acknowledge Somaliland’s secessionist claims, let alone offer it a place as a member state. Commenting on the quest for peace in Somalia, Kofi Annan reported to the General Assembly in 2000 that “‘Somaliland’, in particular, remain[ed] firmly outside the peace process.”[17] So it is that the UN has seen Somaliland’s struggle for independence at best as an inconvenience, at worst as a sabotage to the Somali peace and reunification efforts.
As for the role of the African Union (AU), a fact-finding mission report on Somaliland that they released in 2005 stated, “the AU should find a special method of dealing with this outstanding case.”[18] Unfortunately for Somaliland, the “special method” has not yet involved a formal recognition of sovereignty or their much sought-after admittance into the Union.
Canada, for its part, toes the blurry UN line, recognizing Somaliland’s autonomy, but not its sovereignty.[19]
[15] Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, 2nd Session, 39th Parliament (March 12, 2008), http://www2.parl.gc.ca/CommitteeBusiness/SearchBrowseEvid ence.aspx?arpist=s&arpit=Somaliland&arpidf=2007%2f10%2f16&arpidt=2008%2f09%2f07&arpid=False&arpice=True&arpicl=&ps=Parl39Ses2&arpisb=Publication&arpirpp=10&arpibs=False&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=2&arpicpd=3356438#Para989812.
[16] Department of Public Information, “Press Conference by Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia,” United Nations, http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/ 2006/060619_Fall.doc.htm.
[17] Annual Report, “Chapter I – Achieving Peace and Security,” Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization, http://www.un.org/documents/sg/report00/c h1.htm.
[18] Jahzbahy, Iqba. “African Union & Somaliland: Time to affirm ‘Africa’s best-kept secret’?”:8.
[19] Issue Papers, Extended Responses and Country Fact Sheets, “Country Fact Sheet: Somalia,” Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/resear ch/ndp/ref/index_e.htm?docid=379&cid=0&sec=CH01&version=printable&disclaimer=sh.
