Ali Geeleh
Monday, October 22, 2007
Once again, the secessionist enclave based in Hargeisa has
gone out of their way to show their total contempt for Somalis other than those
who belong to the heartland of the secessionist administered area. This time,
they have shamelessly traded in kidnapped innocent Somalis from the Ogaden in
order to endear themselves to their Ethiopian masters. For them, scoring points
against their equally servile competitors in Somalia
and Puntland and winning Ethiopia’s
favours is worth any price including human trade. These hapless Somalis were in
Hargeisa believing they were safe in a Somali territory which, notwithstanding
its declared secession from Somalia,
would nonetheless be true to core Somali and Islamic values and which could
never go so low and embark on such unspeakable act.
It does not require much imagination to contemplate their
fate in the hands of their Ethiopian enemy. Even if innocent, they will be
meted out all the same the usual cruel and barbaric treatments for which Ethiopia’s
prisons are famous. Sadly, their deaths in detention are distinct
possibilities. If that happens, those in Hargeisa who sanctioned this
treacherous act will have blood on their hands. They would be liable to tried
for treason by a future Somali government that has control over the whole
country and can impose its writ everywhere unlike the current toothless TFG.
More than anything else, what the secessionists have done
this time exposes as sham their much-vaunted claim of practising democracy,
maintaining peace, observing the rule of law and respecting fundamental human
rights. This hogwash was always meant for the consumption of the outside world
as good selling points for promoting Somaliland’s
recognition. As it is, violations of basic human rights, entailing arbitrary
arrests, prolonged detentions without trail and a supine judiciary system, had
been the hallmark of the administration.
This revolting action by the Somaliland
adminstration brings back memories of similar shocking cases. The barbaric and
inhuman treatment a teenage girl named Samsam has left an indelible blot on Somaliland’s image. Her misfortune was to lose her way
and find herself near the residence of the “Vice President”, something
bizarrely considered a crime and meriting her immediate imprisonment as a
suspected spy and her subjection to gang rape by the very people who were the
custodians of the rule of law- law enforcement officers. An administration that
would not spare an innocent little girl is less likely to care about anyone
else considered alien and deemed defenceless. But the list of wronged people
goes on.
While equality before the law is fundamental universal human
rights standard, in the case of Somaliland, those
who belong to dominant secessionist clans are more equal than those who hail
from minority groups who are treated as second class citizens. Visiting Somali
travellers or those in transit en route for other destinations are subjected to
immediate detentions or on the spot deportations for being illegally what every
other Somali and the international community recognise as their own territory.
But it is the Ogadens who are singled out as fair game and sacrificial lamps to
be fed to Ethiopia or
regularly detained in order to gain points with the USA in the war on terror. Not
surprisingly, these grave and rampant human rights violations and abuses had
drawn the stinging rebuke of the Representative for Somalia of the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Somaliland government
did not even bother to go through the sham motions of bringing those kidnapped
people before a court of law to face the charges against them. But that did not
happen for the obvious reason that they had no case against them. As the
secessionist supporting website, Somaliland.org, has reported, these men were
innocent. This heinous crime could have serious consequences and may rekindle
clan hostilities not to mention reprisals by the ONLF “Somalilanders” may be
secessionists/Somalideed, but there are undoubtedly many decent people amongst
them who would draw the line at not tolerating crimes by their administration
against ordinary innocent Somalis, especially guests in their midst. It behoves
them more than ever to raise their voice against this crime. Otherwise, silence
can only be taken as condoning it.
Ali Geeleh
Email: [email protected]