By: Dr Yusuf Dirir Ali
Somalilandsun – The government of Turkey has scheduled the November 8th, 20013 for the restart of the 3rd Somalia and Somaliland dialogue in Turkey. Moreover, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud publicly announced that Somaliland will rejoin the failed union with Somalia at the beginning of 2014.
Regardless of what Mr. Mohamud says or dreams, it is very unlikely that Somaliland will ever take the undesirable adventure to once again lose its hard-earned Sovereignty to Somalia.
Mr. Hassan’s statement is not only confusing to the people of Somalia, but it frantically angers Somaliland. Such unmeasured statements will make Mr. Hassan lose the little credibility that he is left with in the eyes of Turkey and the rest of the International Community.
Mr. Hassan makes this injudicious statement after breaching all the International agreements that his Somalia government signed with the government of the Republic of Somaliland and under the watchful eyes of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey.
Soon after Somaliland and Somalia agreed upon airspace co-management agreement, Somalia did not hesitate for a second to withdraw from that agreement by unilaterally signing an exclusive accord with the International Civil Aviation Organization. Following their agreement, both Somalia and ICAO failed to respond to Somaliland’s demand for clarification.
Similarly and not long ago, the Somalia government signed a Mogadishu airport management contract with a South African company that ended up to have been unilaterally reversed just few months after its signing ceremony . Moments later, the government of Mr. Mohamud signed a new contract with a Turkish company to replace that South African company. The reason for the cancellation of the South African contract was not disclosed.
These are not the only contracts that Somalia government failed to respect and it appears the Somalia President and his gangs are on high gear to fill their pockets first and worry least of everything else, including the credibility of their country.
The behavior of the one year-old Somalia government is indication that they do not understand or care about the consequences of their hasty and greedy decision. In any case, when their tenure is over, they will move and die in a foreign country – just like their Somalia’s political predecessors.
These faulty Somalia decisions will make the International Community think twice before it puts its signature on any document that mentions the Somalia government by name.
President Hassan’s government is not the only guilty party in breaching the international agreements, but the United Nation’s impartiality in Somalia and Somaliland issues is also put into question.
Pitifully, Mr. Nicholas Kay, the UNO envoy to Somalia was asked through his Twitter account by Inner City Press : “What’s UN system thinking, transferring Somaliland airspace to SFG again? You commented before. Now?”
Mr. Kay first responded by writing: “We’re checking on ICAO #Somalia airspace issue. Shd know more next week. Confident Mogadishu-Hargeisa talks will resolve”.
A week later, Mr. Kay came back to report: “Next talks in Turkey Nov 8. Airspace details still on the agenda. We encourage both sides to focus on the July agreements”. To me this response by the UN envoy is insufficient and raises questions about the impartiality and the credibility of his office. This statement also validates Somaliland’s concern of UNO’s prejudice – Somaliland previously banned UN flights.
The reason Somalia is not showing respect to the internationally binding agreements like the airspace agreement with Somaliland, which was blessed by Turkey, members of the Security Council and by the AU and the EU countries is because they believe that they have the full backing of the UNO bureaucracy, but will this be enough of a reason to cause President Hassan becoming uncomfortable, when he meets Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan? My answer is big no, because I lived enough not to see a Somalia politician ever getting self-conscious.
