A
word of wisdom, 'To look backwards is to refresh the eye, to resore it,
and to render it more fit for the prime function of looking forward.'
First came a war in the one city-state capital of Mogadishu, a war that
never ended.
Suddenly,
public and private properties were illegally taken away by force and
unaccountable numbers of innocent people were killed due to their tribe of
origin leave alone the numbers of women who were raped.
Due
to that unprecedented terror, I was one of the fortunate ones who make it
to Bosaso (N-East) where my family came from before many
generations.
Nevertheless,
the road to safety was dangerous and the road was strewn with dead bodies
and immigrants were stripped off the remanents of their possessions.
At
that period, there was no effective adminstration in the N-East, the port
of Bosaso was under the Ittihad led by the U.S wanted man who is called
Hassan Dahir Aweys and the security was a fragile one because of the
weakness of the political leadership.
Later,
former chairman of the SSDF comes home for good unlike his current
political rivals who were waiting at that time their asylum aplications in
Bosaso. Early on, trouble started when the the Ittihad who were fearful of
the home-coming of Col.Abdullahi unsuccesfully attempted to take control
of the N-East.
After
that incident, I went to Adis-abeba where the Ethiopian govn. has treated
the Somali refugees as citizens of its own while they were violated in
other neighbouring countries. Any way, the political confusion in this
major part of Somalia continued and Mr. Ali Mahdi used to claim that
N-East was under his command while the other parts of Puntland were also
claimed by others.
But
things will turn for the better after the failure of the Cairo conference
which , in fact, established the first well-organized federal state of
Puntland and elected Mr, Abdullahi as its president.
Kismayo
factor
Earlier,
Mr. Abdullahi hasn't confined his policies alone in PL but he has assisted
the Somalis who were under occupation like the RRA and others.
And
thanks to this political far-sightedness, the forces of Kismayo who were
expelled from their territory were given a save-haven by the RRA.
Moreover,
President Abdullahi has assisted Kismayo in all means even when his
adminstration was disrupted as if he is the historical Wali (leader) of
the Somali people in Hafun who has done a similar act around the 14th
century as recorded in the book of the Zinj available in Somalia : scritti
vari editti ed inditti.vols written by Cerulli.
Further,
he has restored the peace and stability in Mudug which is still
functioning although it was rejected at that time by some local
politicians.In this matter, Mr. Greenfield relates in his book about the
UN involvement in Somalia that Aideed has told him once that peace in
Mudug was inevitable because his granf father who has opposed a similar
peace treaty was killed by his own clansmen!
After
Arte ( which means volcanic crater in Afar language ), the parliament of Puntland
has extended the mandate of the government for a second time in reference
to the situation and it has recieved the full support of the majority of Puntland
elders as well as the army and the civil servants.
Disappointingly,
after the establishment of the so called TNG, the participants from Puntland
in that confernce who were mainly the failed political immigrants and
selfish elders armed with Arab funds have started to disturb the Puntland's
support to Kismayo and also have tried to replace the adminstration in
unconstitutional way which was supported by the defeated Al-ittihad.
As
a result,the military and the police have intervened to bring back the law
and order in the capital while they are nowadays engaged to do the same in
a peaceful manner with the help of the Bari governor Haji Bikin in the
port city of Bosaso.
But
what we can learn from the past? In my opinion, I think that the Somali
crises have their roots in hatred, tribal selfishness, prejudice and
injustice and these evils will not be uprooted easily. On the other hand,
it is clear that there are some self interested people in Puntland and the
man in their right so far as they concerned is the one with the great
wealth and open handed!
By
the way, nothing is easier than self-deceit, for what each man wishes,
that he also believes to be true. In all, the above mentioned facts tells
us that what Puntland really needs is a laeder for hard times as stated in
"Africa's problem child" by Prof. Said. S. Samatar.
A.O.Dirie
The Netherlands