By Mohsin Mahad
In the history of nations, peoples and of clans, there has always been the aggressors, the expansionists, those who believed that might is right and the end justified the means to conquer their perceived weak opponents. European nations have faced this crisis time and again in their history but nothing like the Nazi menace under Hitler. As most of Europe succumbed to the Nazi might, it was left to Great Britain under Prime Minister Winston Churchill to rally his people to stand their ground, fight and never to surrender, a call that has become one of the defining speeches during the second world. This is what Churchill had to say:
“ Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills….”
And so did Britain win the war and prevail over their nemesis, Hitler and the Nazis. That daunting defiant struggle and the final victory it ushered has became a lesson for both future aggressors and expansionists as well as an inspiration to all those aggressed. History repeats itself and today we have the equivalent of the Nazis, the Isaaq clan hailing from their enclave in northern Somalia which they renamed Somaliland after their declaration of secession in May 1991.
Having laid their hands on the arsenal of the disintegrated national Somali army, after the collapse of the Somali State in January 1991, the Isaaq clan, in the mould of the Nazis, are bent on clan domination and empire-building through conquering the territories of unionist clans in northern Somalia (former British Somaliland), thereby realising their “Soomaalidiid” aspiration of a separate independent “Somaliland” where they could lord it over others. And just for Hitler, Britain stood between them and the conquest of all of Europe(except neutral Sweden and Switzerland), so for the expansionist secessionist Isaaq clan, the Dhulbahante clan, hailing from the regions of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) remain the last hurdle standing between them and their total conquest of the whole of former northern Somalia.
Like the British in the face of Hitler and the Nazis, the Dhulbahante are all alone in facing to the Isaaq expansionist menace. This they do, not only because their dignity and their right to self-determination demands it, but above out of their devotion to the defence of Somali unity against its irredeemable enemy. Alas, for all their sacrifices for Somali unity, they got nothing for it – no moral or material support from the rest of Somalia, people or government, and least of all from the current President who has been publicly sympathetic to Somaliland in his own perverse ways. He is on record for sending them congratulatory messages for their achievements which amounts to the break-up of Somalia. This he did on the very same day when they were gunning down unionist demonstrators in Lascanod waving the Somali national flag.
Given all the odds they face, the Dhulbahante could have counted on another front for support. Their fellow Darood kith and kin should have came to their aid aware that their fellow Dhulbahante brethren are facing on their own the entirety of the Isaaq clan, as people and administration, and betrayed by the very Somali government that was supposed to be defend its people and territorial integrity from internal and external enemies. But here again no such support has been forthcoming. On the contrary, one of the Darood clans, the dominant one in Puntland, had been in cahoots with the Isaaq(Somaliland) in a common cause to scupper Khatumo State of Somalia which the Dhulbahante established in January 2012 to promote their own regional development.
While these two bed fellows are united in working for the demise of Khatumo, their endgames are as of now divergent. For the Isaaq clan, they are driven by expansionist clan empire-building mania in which the SSC regions are perceived as indispensable for their immense natural resources and the boost they hold for the clan’s recognition prospects. As for Puntland’s dominant clan, it is the economic and diplomatic benefits it derives from maintaining its claim to the SSC regions, but above all the lure of the mineral resources of the area, that is equally keeps it in the race. If neither is able to knockout the other, they could come to agree, as typical of predators, to cooperate in conquering Khatumo and share the spoils, which is nothing more than building castles in the air.
And so, the Isaaq clan’s aggression against Khaatumo State of Somalia continues unabated. On the 12 of June, their militia had captured the ill-defended Taleex town, the provisional capital of Khatumo, thus scuppering the on-going Khatumo 3 conference at least for now. They did the same thing two moths ago during the conference’s preparation but were forced to quit after incurring intense international pressure in support of the inalienable right of the people of Khatumo to free assembly and to deliberate on their own affairs.
One has to await what their reaction will be this time to the secessionists’ repeat illegal action against other regions and clans that are part and parcel of Somalia. Having faced no economic, financial and political sanctions for their secession in the first place, they remain cocksure in their military prowess and feel they have nothing to fear from any source, a mindset that only encourages their illegal actions. Apart from defeat on the ground at the hands of Khatumo, only a robust response from the international community can deter further secessionists illegal aggressions against Somalia, its regions and clans and could also possibly end the secession itself.
The Somali leaders and political establishment in Mogadishu are, true to their past, unperturbed by what is happening in what they see as a far away place in the north, out of their radar and hence out of sight and out of their mind. It is a mindset which implicitly recognizes Somaliland’s secession and the Isaaq’s claim to the whole former British Somaliland. No wonder that the “general” leading the Isaaq militia capturing Taleex today, Ismail Shaqalle, can gloat over their capture of the town and dictate to the town’s residents and, by extension, the wider people of Khaatumo, that they are not free to meet unless they have express prior permission from the Isaaq, a diktat that even the British colonialists would have been reluctant to utter let alone impose.
Like the British in the face of the expansionist Nazis, the Dhulbahanta can, on their own, soldier on, stand up to these expansionist clan chauvinists. Gone are their mantra that they are fighting for Somali unity. That got them no where. Henceforth, they are fighting for their freedom, their dignity and their inalienable right to self-determination and to be masters of their home, which means out with Somaliland and Puntland, the two albatrosses around Khatumo’s neck. Once they are free, they can decide their future: everything should be on the table and no option should be excluded. In the meantime, they can hold their conference anywhere in Free Khatumo. Buuhoolde immediately comes to mind as the best venue to host it, a place where the boastful general and his Isaaq militia will be mindful of the routing inflicted on them last time when they on attempted to capture the city.
Mohsin Mahad
Email: mohsinmahad@yahoo.co.uk
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