Somaliland is a self-declared
state that has not been recognized internationally. It took its independence
from the UK in the 1960s but in a week joined Somalia which was ruled by Italians.
People view on differently why Somaliland joined Somalia and one of the main
reasons is that they wanted a great Somalia that unites Somalis who lived in
the northern, eastern, and southern Somalia, furthermore, those who lived in
Djibouti, Eastern Ethiopia, and Northern Kenya. However, it did not work out,
and Somalilanders (northerners) wanted to re-establish their own state in the
1990s. They were not fully represented in the government in Mogadishu and experienced
lots of mistreatment.
They call the idea of uniting Somalia
and Somaliland “Failure Dream.”
The question that we will mainly discuss throughout the essay will be, even
though Somaliland fulfilled most of the procedures of being an independent
state and deserved recognition why it is not recognized as a country.
There are many perspectives in
which people view on this issue. The African Union doesn’t want to recognize
Somaliland, if they do recognize it, they think it will lead more to instability
in Somalia and it will encourage many other territories to claim their own
states. According to the Somaliland
Press, “The African Union refuses to recognize Somaliland based on fears that
doing so would lead to a serous of claims of secession by other territories in
Africa.”
[1]
The AU wants to respect the
borders that colonizers left behind in order to prevent tribal disputes among
Somalis. It took nearly twenty five years in Eretria to get its independence
from Ethiopia. If the international community didn’t pay close attention to the
recognition of Southern Sudan, it would probably take longer. It is not an easy decision for the AU to
decide whether or not to recognize states.
Somaliland is a democratic
country, where people elect their leaders free and fairly. Regardless of its
government and the legitimacy of its people, Somaliland does not have a lot of
resource which could have attracted the developed countries and foreign
investors to invest the country. Yet, Somaliland has an important role in east
African politics, and recently instead of sending the Somali Pirates to outside
of Somalia the UN allowed Somaliland to imprison them[2].
There have been some European
countries that opened offices in Hargeisa and it is a sign of recognition.
There are number of countries that accepted the Somaliland passport. However, according to BBC, it has been a huge
debate earlier in October this year that Saudi Arabia rejected the nation’s
passport which forced Somalilanders to get a Somali passport to go to the
Pilgrimage. There are many countries who would like Somaliland to be apart, but
they do not want to be the first ones who declare it. “We had been struggling
to get recognition and it took us nearly twenty years to be a country and it
will take us fifty more to get recognized,” is a common sentiment from
Somalilanders. Finally, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” it will take time so we
have to be patient to reach our goal.
