The strategic importance of the unionist regions of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) to the success of the secession has not been lost upon the one-clan based separatists from the time they declared their breakaway from Somalia in May 1991. Though invariably wrong on most of their calculations, the secessionists have been right for once to see the SSC regions, formerly part of British Somaliland, as the lynchpin that binds together north and south Somalia. And as long as these regions remain part of Somalia, the clamour for recognition by the residual secessionist rump in the NW region would not make much headway with the international community for whom all clan-based secessions are reminiscent of those in Biafra, Katanga and their likes.

 

Though opposition to one-clan driven secession in any African country is the bedrock of the Charter of the African Union, the separatists reckon that the secession of the whole of the NW region from Somalia, encompassing by force or free will the whole of the territory and clans of former British Somaliland, might stand better prospects in gaining legitimacy. Counting their chickens that may never hatch, resting on possible support from some corrupt African leaders they bribed, or certain western countries temped by the areas coveted strategic importance, are what nourishes their illusory hopes for recognition. This delusion continues to dominate the psyche of the secessionists, rendering them blinkered, bigoted and so far averse to peaceful dialogue and reconciliation.

 

The need for recognition is not the sole reason the SSC regions are sought by the secessionists. High on the list is the economic factor. The abundant unexploited natural resources of the SSC regions have long been eyed by the secessionists who rightly see them as a future Eldorado that could transform the fortunes of their resource-impoverished enclave. For Dahir Riyale, leader of the rebel area, the secession has no emotional or ideological appeal to him. Indeed, he did much to crush it in his earlier profession when he was a trusted national security officer in the north during the rule of the late Mohamed Siyad Barre. Instead, he cynically sanctioned the capture of the SSC regions in order to boost his chances to keep his job at the forthcoming "presidential" election. This is the backdrop to the invasion and occupation of much of the SSC in October 2007, including its regional capital Lascanod.

 

The tyranny that the secessionists have inflicted on the occupied SSC regions following their invasioin and occupation is worse than anything the British had done to them anytime during its colonial rule except for the duration of the Darwiish war. This unbridled revegenist oppression visited upon the population has touched all aspects of their socio-economic life. Of the 120,000 pre-invasion population of Lacanod, only 20,000 now remain. The rest, close to 100,000 persons, have been forced to flee, most ending up in Kenya's Somali refugee camps while the rest are internally displaced.

 

Rather than embarking on something that might improve the lot of the occupied people, the occupiers resorted to mindless barbaric collective punishment, arbitrary detentions, economic deprivations and denial of basic human rights. "Deportation" of Somalis hailing from other regions, seen as illegal aliens, has gathered pace. Worse is the round-up of innocent Ogaden residents and their handover to Ethiopian security forces, a practice already well established in Hargeisa. A new and more worrying development is the indiscriminate detention of innocent civilians and their transfer to the notorious Mandera jail, not far from Hareida - now dubbed as Somaliland's Quantanamo detention centre for SSC detainees where they are routinely tortured.

 

The impact of all these heinous crimes is to still fear and insecurity among the population, forcing many more to leave the city, in particular the most productive groups. The forced depopulation of the city, the collapse of social services and businesses and the dire condiiton of the city's only hospital, now dysfunctional as doctors and other staff have run away from this reign of terror, are some of the most visible scars of this occupation at the hands of fellow Somali compatriots whose actions are worse than those of Somalia's worst enemies. The Northern Somalia Unionist Movement (NSUM) ,striving for the unity of Somalia and the end of the secession, is ready to provide detailed cases of human rights violations to interested human rights defenders in the UN and outside.

 

In the meantime, the SSC people, having failed to persuade the invaders to withdraw peacefully from the territory, will have no option but to double their efforts to liberate their territory. But even at this eleventh hour, it is never too late for commonsense to prevail over delusion. It is in everybody's interest that the secessionists withdraw from the SSC regions on their own accord and save themselves and everybody else pointless human and material losses. While no political leader from the secessionist enclave, with an eye on the forthcoming elections, may not have the temerity to speak out against the occupation, there is no reason why they should be inhibited after the election. The international community has the clout to push the separatists in that direction, given their indispensable aid and the leverage it bestows upon them.

 

The unionist regions of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn, true to their history as defenders of the Somali homeland against alien invaders and colonisers, are continuing to pay heavy sacrifices in defending Somalia's unity, this time against its internal clannish enemies. Despite the odds they face in terms of the strength of the enemy, yet no other groups in Somalia, whether clans, organisations, or individuals, have come to join or aid them in the defence of Somalia's unity. Worse, Somali governments established in Embagethi in Kenya and Djibouti, for whom the defence of the country against its external and internal enemies were their raison d'être, have been indifferent to their responsibilities, shamelessly engrossed in their own political survival and personal pecuniary pursuits. Thus the battle to maintain Somalia's unity has been left by default to the SSC people which they heroically shoulder. No matter how long it takes, they will defeat the enemy of unity and banish the bane of secession from Somalia's body politic once and for all and consign it to the dustbin of history.

 

 NSUM Executive Committe