August 25, 2007 - 00:39
Siadists, Sool and Burco conference    

I would like to thank Awdalnews for allowing a much-needed debate among Eastern Somalilanders of different political affiliations. It is a grim reminder of our dead-end political situation when this discussion cannot take place inside our local media since Sool regional websites, along with our Garaad, have simply become a mouth-piece for the Puntland leader of the day. In the case of our media, constant bullying and several arrests made them so servile that they are the only ones painstakingly reporting the most uneventful of Puntland cabinet gatherings.

Now coming back to the NSPU ramblings, Mohsin contends that "Abdalla Hirad and the director of NSPU are from SSC regions as are other members of the team. They also belong to Puntland since SSC is part of it. This link may have escaped Mohamed mind". Without spreading the beans on the among cited gentlemen tribal lineages, I can assure the author that I know firsthand (I spent almost two decades in small town Ottawa) that none of NSPU members sub clan falls within Somaliland borders. But therein, I believe, lies the disagreement between me and Mohsin: Puntland is a tribal entity and therefore believes that it encompasses each parcel inhabited by one of its sub clan. The majority of NSPU members hail from Bosaaso and the western part of Bari region, but having tribal lineage with some Somaliland sub clans does not give them the right to define their team as a grassroot Sool and Sanaag movement. By this process of pushing out boundaries as widely as possible, NSPU might as well pose as Ethiopian Somali advocacy group; but don't laugh this might happen since oil smell in Ogaden could well entice them irresistibly.

On the Burao conference matter, there has been a great deal written by Siadists and here is the basic charade going on in their mind: after Faqashia fall, the most respected elders from each Somaliland clans were peacefully convening when a horde of trigger-happy SNM militiamen forced them at gun point to declare Somaliland separation.

Of course, this ludicrous historical account have been time and again rebuked by direct testimony from participants, but the entanglement began with a couple of high powered Siadist household asserting it on every media, of course without producing one single evidence, fieldwork or witness. Throw enough mud, they say, and part of it should probably stick.

As you could expect from a faithful Siadist, Mohsin borrows from the same manta when he calls the Burao conference "hijacked by extremist SNM hotbeds" but he adds with rare candor that "the participants from SSC were disowned and the secession declaration rejected out of hand". Here is something I fail to understand: how can you disown someone based on decisions he was forced to make when he was held at gunpoint? Shouldn't you feel compassion and empathy for him instead? And why SSC elders did not denounce this plot when they were safely back in their homeland? Why did not they flee to Puntland and took to the airwaves?

As a Somalilander, I feel amazed to hear this loosely accurate folk story but as a Lascanooder, I feel insulted at the suggestion that my nine Garaads and statesmen like Qaybe, Galaydh, Afqudhac could have been held at gunpoint during Burao conference and kept silent about it. How can some fellow Lascanooders sell themselves short by attributing?How could they attribute to our elders such unflattering and baseless behaviors? Why do they promote these lies?No one could bully the late Garaad Abdi Qani to sign, at gunpoint, unwarranted deal subsequently get away with.

Despite all the huffing, duffing and rumblings, Mohsin's self-serving window dressing diguised as political analysis can be tested out to naive foreigners but cannot convince a Lascanooder like me. Indeed, contrary to Mohsion's contention that "SSC never joined the secession", the historical facts point otherwise: my region was fully represented with all its nine Garaads, senior statesmen like early SNM member Afqudhacac (Puntland current VP), Xaabsade, Galaydh, Qaybe... I understand that when you are trying to gain visibility one way is to shock people with outrageous claim, and NSPU is exactly doing this, but the circus has to stop.

Mohamed Sougal
mohamedsougal@yahoo.com