Somalilandsun- Who Gets To Have Their Own Country? was the title of a recent episode of The BBC Inquiry where expert witnesses laid out exactly why it’s so complicated to declare independence and set up as a new state. The case of Somaliland came up and while giving some background presenter James Fletcher said something which listener, Ahmed Kadleye strongly disagreed with.
Ahmed who is not only an ardent Somaliland nationalist but member of @somaalilanders team an International community platform based in London, UK, where Somalilanders from around the world meet and discus the interest of their community, shared the full episode with us below titled
Somalilander Argues The BBC World Service Got It Wrong
The BBC World Service programme, The Inquiry, has recently “delved into” the intricate issue of “self-determination versus territorial integrity” www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p059s1ks: Who Gets to Have Their Own Country?
As the programme was relevant to Somaliland’s quest to join the family of nations, we (@Somalilanders team) listened very keenly to it. We were quite disappointed with its depiction of Somaliland’s case, though. Both the presenter and the experts invited to participate the programme bizarrely portrayed Somaliland as a region in Somalia. Had this erroneous description been the case, then one could have been forgiven for believing/thinking that recognising Somaliland would violate the territorial integrity of Somalia, to which the programme alluded.
For those who are not well versed in Somalia and Somaliland issues, suggesting that Somaliland is a Somalian region is like saying Scotland is a region in England. It is an incontestable fact of history that Somaliland has never been part of the country known as SOMALIA; this simple fact totally knocks the bottom out of the many misleading assertions made or implied by The Inquiry in relation to Somaliland’s legal case. For example, the programme presented Somaliland as an entity seceding from its “mother” country, Somalia – nothing could have been far from the truth. Somaliland only dissolved a union called the Somali Republic – albeit a legally questionable one in the first place that Somalia and Somaliland tried to form on 1 July 1960 – after Somalia plunged into its still ongoing civil war in 1991 and became your archetypical neighbour from hell.
Anyway, OverToYou (listener feedback programme for the BBC World Service) contacted the @Somaalilanders team regarding our views on this particular episode of The Inquiry: Who Gets to Have Their Own Country? After sending our comments (a very short voice message and brief hand-wavy explanations, see below), OverToYou asked us if we would like to join the feedback programme on the phone to put our point across. Unfortunately, the Inquiry team did not put anyone forward for interview to respond to our concerns, instead they wrote a short statement to OverToYou.
The following are
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a) Our voice message: https://soundcloud.com/somalilanders/somaalilanders-response-to-bbc-world-service
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b) Our brief hand-wavy explanations: http://docdro.id/pd2fgtt
- c) The Inquiry team’s short statement: https://www.docdroid.net/3O6JOUh/statement-from-the-inquiry.pdf
- d) listen to The OverToYou programme Somaliland Listener Says The Inquiry Got It Wrong
Related read
Somaliland: Strict Editorial Guidelines Deter Partiality says BBC
and
Somaliland is Not a Breakaway Republic says BBC
