[Ugnet] Islamist Control of Somalia Spreading

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 12:12:37 -0700

Islamist Control of Somalia Spreading

(For background see these posts.)
Islamic militants captured Mogadishu last week and they’re already asserting control over more of the country. Yesterday, they moved into Jowhar, 90 miles north of the capital and the last reported “stronghold” of the militants, who fled into the desert without a real fight. The Islamic forces now have full control of the major cities in the southern part of the country.
Meanwhile, President Abdullahi Yusuf’s exiled “elected government” based in nearby Baidoa, and whose military consists of little more than the president’s personal militia, is trying to assert a third alternative to the warlords and the Islamists with the assistance of the UN. The interim parliament there has voted to call for an African peacekeeping force. Amusingly enough, the proposal calls for the first wave of peacekeeping forces to come from Uganda and Sudan—not exactly model peacekeepers.
On top of all this chaos is the peaceful Somaliland, an unrecognized state in the north that has been independent in fact since the collapse of the country in 1991. Despite being recognized by only neighboring Ethiopia, it is a stable region with multiparty local and national elections. (International observers monitoring the elections in September 2005 found them generally peaceful, free, and fair.) Elections have boosted Somaliland’s chance at international recognition as a sovereign state, and if Islamic militias turn southern Somalia from a chaotic mess into the next Afghanistan, we can only expect this will boost its status.
Additionally, I always like to look at the connection between the former colonial ruler and current civil politics. Interestingly enough, Somaliland was formerly a British colony, and southern Somalia an Italian colony.

5 Responses to “Islamist Control of Somalia Spreading”

  1. What's this??   Catholicgauze said:
     June 15th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
    A stable democracy in the Mid East general area and we don’t recognize it. Figures.
  2. What's this??   MilBlogs said:
     June 15th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
    The Stable, Multi-Party Democracy Of Somaliland
    [Curzon @ Coming Anarchy makes the case for Somaliland, while offering a good brief on Somalia’s chaos….....]
  3. What's this??   Faisal said:
     June 16th, 2006 at 4:14 am
    Firstly Somaliland is not in the Middle East as Catholicgauze pointed out. Somaliland is only in Africa. In fact we dont like to be associated with the Arabs as they hate us and we hate them. In fact to upset them even further, there has been a leak a couple of years ago from the governement that said that it will establish good relations with Israel when the country is accepted by the International community. The other reason for this is that when we got independance from the British, Israel was one of the first countries (top 5) to recognise us before we merged with Italian Somaliland to form the now defunct and non existent, United republic of Somalia which late became the Somali Democratic Republic.
    The issue is people still think that we are secessionists. This is not the case. There are gov’ts in the world which are unknowledgable about our history , the fact that Somaliland was an independant state for 4 days. This is what President Riyaale’s aim is for now. To go on a tour of the world and spread the word Somaliland and its peace , tolerance, secularity and democracy. I hope more people like you get the word out for Somaliland. I have no doubt that it will be a recognised state in the near future as people see no chance of a recovery in Somalia. So why hold us hostage?
  4. What's this??   Curzon said:
     June 16th, 2006 at 4:46 am
    Faisal: Thanks for the great comment. In CG’s defense, he did say in the “Middle East general area,” and Somaliland is just a short distance from Yemen, a major hot spot. Is Somaliland a viable alternative government for all of Somalia? It seems far more legitimate than the quasi-elected interim government in Baidoa.
  5. What's this??   Faisal said:
     June 16th, 2006 at 5:29 am
    The people in Puntland (an autonomous state within Somalia) and in the rest of Somalia would not like to see our government be an alternative government to theirs and vice versa. On our part it would mean joning the rest of Somalia which 97% of the people in a referendum carried out in 1997 refuse to do. The issue is Somalia is very complex and the same is for Somaliland. That is one of the reasons why we never got along. Some dictators were playing the ‘clan game’. What the Somalilanders are saying is to use our model for reconciling the different clans together and to see eye to eye, which they have not done. Here is a paper that shows how they acheived that.
    Instead of following that unique model ( which some say to be a model for the rest of Africa) there is a lot of bickering going around which caused the Islamists to fill that vacuum and seize the opportunity to give people what they really wanted – peace.
    The so called government in Baidoa i think has a very limited future. There are deep divisions between ’ ministers’ and the warlords who ironically are those ‘ministers’. In my view unless they get some sort of support they will be eaten up by the Islamists. I hope that support doesn’t come in the form of weapons. Apparently the EU wants put an ease on the weapons embargo placed against Somalia. Somaliland is worried about this as these weapons maybe targeted against us. Or they may give these weapons to neigboring Puntland where we had a clash last year due to a border dispute.

What say you?

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