PRESENTATION BY MINISTER ABDILLHI DUALE, FOREIGN MINISTER OF SOMALILAND, TO ACADEMICS, STUDENT LEADERS AND OPINION MAKERS AT THE DAWN OF GHANA'S 50TH INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATIONS IN ACCRA, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, MARCH 5, 2007

Mr. President,

Chairperson,

Fellow Ministers,

Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Commandant of the Centre,

Members of the Press,

Ladies & Gentlemen


It is a great honour for me to address you today at this Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) Seminar at the dawn of Ghana's 50 years of independence celebrations. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. You may be well aware that Ghana's struggle for independence, its bold leadership under Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (May God bless his soul), inspired us to lead our independence struggles under the late President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal (May God bless his soul). Ghana was correctly viewed as a beacon state, inspiring us and many continental liberation movements, such as Africa's oldest liberation organisation, the African National Congress (ANC). On behalf of the people of Somaliland, our best 50th congratulations, to the heroic people of Ghana and their heroic leadership!

This roundtable seminar organised jointly by Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in association with the University of South Africa, could not be more perfectly timed as we reflect on the path ahead, the `long walk to freedom', towards a better life for our children and people. The mobilising slogan of our founding father Dr. Nkrumah is most appropriate today: `Forward ever, backward never'.

Allow me to make a few major points in response to the presentation by Dr. Iqbal Jhazbhay of the University of South Africa (Unisa) - an internationally known specialist on Islamic Studies and notably, Somaliland, Somalia and the Horn of Africa.

Somalia has been much in the minds of African and international policy-makers in recent months, as well as in the minds and hearts of concerned citizens and the Ghanian government, as it takes on the responsibilities as the Chair of the African Union.

Somaliland is in agreement with countries in the Horn of Africa, in Africa and internationally, who were and are concerned about long period of lawlessness and the current extremist elements associated with the Union of Islamic Courts, known in Islamic literature as at-tatarruf. These extremists posed a real threat to the peace and security of the region and the continent as well as the wider world through their regional territorial ambitions, irredentism and support for both fundamentalism and terrorism. Somaliland welcomes the actions that have been taken by Ethiopia and the African Union to neutralise this danger. Somaliland itself has been a victim of indiscriminate terrorist violence for numerous times.

I must emphasise, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of a moderate constitutional Islamic state myself, that this is not to say that Islam and the traditional Islamic leaders do not have an important role to play in the future of southern Somalia. Far from it. Some traditional Muslim leaders achieved a great deal last year in bringing stability and security to areas of Southern Somalia that had not seen such conditions. Unfortunately, the process was hijacked by extremist, fundamentalist and terrorist elements. For a very long time moderate Islamists will have a vital part to play in the urgent task of stabilising southern Somalia, working with the Transitional Federal Institutions and the AU's stabilisation force.

Somaliland will be glad to play its sisterly role in assisting in every way to contribute towards stabilising Southern Somalia without compromising Somaliland's sovereignty.

Mr. Chairman,

I am here today, however, to talk about another SOMALILAND. A country that does not make as many headlines or attract as much international attention as its neighbour in the south (former Italian Trusteeship). A country that is peaceful, stable and democratic which is seeking full recognition, acknowledgment of its achievements and of its rights by its fellow Africans. I am here to speak about my country Somaliland, on the clear instructions of my President, His Excellency President Dahir Rayale Kahin.

Somaliland was a British Protectorate. After Ghana's independence in 1957, we gained our independence on June 26 1960, where we were recognised as an independent state by over 35 countries. We voluntarily entered a union with the former Italian Somalia. The union went disastrously wrong for Somaliland. Somalilanders were excluded from decision-making and discriminated against. Unlike Ghana, which did not experience a civil war, Somaliland experienced the brunt of military bombings by a dictatorship. Tens of thousands of Somalilanders were killed, nearly one million Somalilanders were forced to flee their homes as refugees and sought refuge in Ethiopia. Many were internally displaced persons, and much of the country was laid to waste and sewn with mines. We also paid a dear price for being pawns of the Cold war with Soviet and US interests making the army of the late Siad Barre one of the strongest in Africa.

As a result of this trauma, Somaliland withdrew from the union with Somalia in May 1991 and re-constituted itself as an independent country. This was a reversion to the independent state of Somaliland of 1960 within the same agreed borders of the 1960 state; not a secession, but a reversion to the status quo ante.

Since 1991 Somalilanders have reconciled their internal differences in a long, intense, home-grown process of national reconciliation and nation building. We have long since disbanded clan-based militias. We have rebuilt our country. And we have created a democratic system of government that has won praise from around the world and that combines an elected President and a lower house of parliament with an upper house of parliament composed of clan elders. This experience is now referred to in the African Studies literature by Dr. Iqbal Jhazbhay as `Africa's Best-Kept Secret'. Our task is to share and expose this `secret'!!

Like all other peoples, whether in Ghana, Ethiopia, or South Africa, Somalilanders have their political disagreements. But there is one issue on which almost all Somalilanders agree: that they will not go back to union with Somalia. Somaliland's constitution, which affirms Somaliland's status as a sovereign and independent state, was endorsed in a 2001 referendum by 97% of electors who voted. The majority of Somalilanders participated in our recent democratic local (2000), presidential (2003) and parliamentary (2005) elections. We are now looking forward to a second round of democratic elections, starting with local government elections scheduled tentatively for the near future, to be announced by the National Electoral Commission (NEC).

The government of Somaliland along with its people is ready to share our experiences of national reconciliation and state building with our neighbours in Mogadishu and to assist in stabilising the south in any way we can. This position is open to IGAD, the AU and the international community generally, as well as directly to the Transitional Federal Institutions of Somalia without compromising Somaliland's freedom and sovereignty.

Mr. Chairman,

An African Union fact-finding mission was sent to Somaliland in 2005 to assess our country and our state in the light of Somaliland's application for recognition and membership of the AU. The mission was dispatched by His Excellency Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairman of the African Union Commission and led by his Deputy Honorable Patrick Mazimhaka. I am confident that you may all have seen the findings of that mission:

that the union with Somalia brought `enormous injustice and suffering' to the people of Somaliland;

that Somaliland has a `unique' and uniquely justified case for recognition that would not open a Pandora's box for claims to statehood elsewhere in Africa;

that the lack of recognition has hampered the development of Somaliland;

and that the African Union should find a special mechanism and framework of dealing with the status of the Republic of Somaliland.

Mr Chairman,

I ask you not to loose sight of the carefully considered recommendations of the African Union fact-finding mission.

Somaliland has waited over sixteen years now for consideration of its legitimate case by the African Union. Until there is a settlement of the Somaliland issue there will be no settlement of the Somalia issue.

There are two specific proposals I ask of you:

First, Ghana as Chair of the African Union and as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, to:

a) make known this AU report on Somaliland, by every way possible

to encourage senior AU member states to visit Somaliland and see for themselves our home-grown democratic gains, challengers and,

to commission an AU member state delegation under the auspices of the current Chairman of the African Union, His Excellency President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana, to visit Somaliland and report back to the next summit in Accra in July 2007, and

Second, to follow-up urgently and creatively on the recommendations of the African Union report.

Somaliland has much to offer the African Union's founding Constitutive Act. We are a partner for peace and stability in the Horn of Africa, a democracy made in the spirit of a new Africa and a force for development in one of the poorest parts of our continent.

We are committed to good, peaceful and open relations with Somalia and to our common development. We are ready to enter into any kind of dialogue with the Transitional Federal Institutions, as equals and neighbours, that does not compromise our irrevocable position of statehood and independence.

It is time for Somaliland, Somalia and the African Union to move forward together towards a better future for the Horn of Africa in particular and Africa at large.

Finally, as Dr. Nkrumah said, `Forward ever, backward never'! I can comfortably say: `Forward ever with Somaliland's independence and stability, backward never for re-union with Somalia.'!!

`Forward ever with the stability of the Horn of Africa, backward never for irredentism and regional wars.'!!

Thank you once again for allowing me this opportunity to speak to you today.

Happy Birthday Ghana and God bless you all.

Republic of Somaliland
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Accra, Ghana