Double standard: Is the reason that influenced the so-called international community’s call to withdraw troops from Saaxdheer
In last days for the month of August, 2014, the inauguration cerebration expected to be honored Khaaatum for the newly elected president of Khaatum, Mr. Ali Khaleef Galaydh was foiled by Somali-land army. However, a joint press statement from U.S. Special Representative for Somalia, James McAnulty, UN envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay and European Union Ambassador Michele Cervone d’Urso called Somaliland to withdraw our troops from Saaxdheer. Below is the complete press release. Quote.
Nairobi – Senior international representatives to Somalia on Friday called on warring sides in the north of country to withdraw their forces from the disputed town of Saaxdheer and resolve differences through peaceful means. In a joint statement issued in Mogadishu, the U.S. Special Representative for Somalia, James McAnulty, UN envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay and European Union Ambassador Michele Cervone d’Urso expressed concern over conflict in northern Somalia between forces of the self-proclaimed republic of Somali-land and those of the newly-formed regional state of Khaatumo. Residents in the southern regions of Somali-land elected Ali Khalif Galeyr, a Somali MP as the head of the newly-formed Khaatuom State of Somalia which includes Sool, Sanaag and Ayn regions in north of the country.
On Thursday as local Khaatumo authorities were preparing for the inauguration of the new president in the Saaxdheer town, forces from Somali-land attacked the venue and clashed with local militias protecting the ceremony attended by local and national political leaders including members of parliament. We call for the immediate withdrawal of forces from Saaxdheer, and the immediate release of all prisoners.
We urge all parties to refrain from violence and make concerted efforts to de-escalate and resolve differences through peaceful means and dialogue,” said the joint UN, U.S. and EU statement. Somali-land objects to the formation of the regional state in areas it claims as part of its territory. The region has been seeking to cede from the rest of Somalia since 1991. Talks between Somali leaders and local officials have been continuing under the mediation of the Turkish government for the past two years. As per the international law, the international community considers Somali-land as autonomous region of Somalia. What is international law?
Under international law, sovereign state is the government that has legal control over its territory control over all aspects of the people’s lives. A sovereign state is a place with borders where people live, and where a government makes laws and talks to other sovereign states. The people have to follow the laws that the government makes and only the government is allowed to hurt people or put them in jail. The government can do whatever it wants and doesn’t have to do what other governments tell it to do. Most sovereign states are recognized which means other sovereign states agree that it’s really a sovereign state. Being recognized makes it easier for a sovereign state to talk to and make agreements treaties with other sovereign states. There are hundreds of recognized sovereign states today. Territory is a designation for a type of political geographic. International law is the set of rules generally regarded and accepted as binding in relations between states and between nations. It serves as a framework for the practice of stable and organized international relations. International law differs from state-based legal system in that it is primarily applicable to countries rather than to private citizens of any country. Much of international law is consent-based governance. This means that a state member of the international community is not obliged to abide by this type of international law, unless it has expressly consented to a particular course of conduct.
This is an issue of state sovereign. The constitutional referendum that took place in Somali-land has not accepted by the international community reason being did not any legal force that legal effect. What is referendum? Referendum is the process that everyone in particular country who is registered to vote can take part and People will decide if they want to accept their constitution, that’s a set of rules. However, their binding rules to conduct a free and fair referendum, but that are totally not the case of Somali-land due the following: No.1. There should be an independent commission to declare the outcome of referendum and monitor campaigning activities. No 2, there should two parties or more to contest the election referendum process. No 3. There should be campaigners for both parties, which means pro and against.No 4. At the time conducted the referendum was not appropriate, as we have not healed from the effects of our civil wars. 5. The referendum has take place almost 30 % of the country.
No 6. There was no voter’s registration prior conducting the referendum process and therefore, the 97 % announced did not based on truthful bases. 7. Somali-land being not recognized internationally, United Nations representing the international community did attended and approved the referendum process. 8. We were having not any legality to conduct, since we still negotiation with the Somali federal government to search out diplomatic recognition from the international community. Considering, the facts and figures listed in the above, the results declared was totally disregarded by the international community being without legal force; having no legal effect.
Other than United Nations member states, which are 193 countries, there are many international legally organization like United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Criminal Court (ICC) etc.
Under international law, international community did not recognize Somali-land as a sovereign country. A sovereign state is a place with borders where people live, and where a government makes laws and talks to other sovereign states. The people have to follow the laws that the government makes and only the government is allowed to hurt people or put them in jail. The government can do whatever it wants and doesn’t have to do what other governments tell it to do. Most sovereign states are recognized which means other sovereign states agree that it’s really a sovereign state. Being recognized makes it easier for a sovereign state to talk to and make agreements treaties with other sovereign states A treaty is a written agreement between two or more parties that consists international law.
Under international law, the parties may be countries or by international organization like united nations or any one of its bodies. Somali-land which was formerly British Somali-land reclaim independence in 1991, however, no country in the world extended diplomatic recognition. British Somali-land, it becomes independent and merged with Italian Somali-land in 1960. Apart of the above, the international communities consider the Somali people as most homogeneous people in the world regardless any part of the world. In general, Somalis re one of the most homogeneous people in the world in the world and in particular in Africa with great historical background sharing a common language, rich religion heritage and ethnicity. But with all this there is one setback that has been part of our history and upbringing tribalism. Somali people are an amalgamated clans of ancient nomadic and warrior Cushitic Somali-speaking ethno linguistic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa popularly known as Somali Peninsula. Somalis who are known for being the most homogeneous people in Africa and in the world are predominantly Sunni Muslims and they have mixed over the years with Arab settles. Somalis reside in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and D Djibouti.
In the event a country did not have legal sovereignty, that means you have not legal control over your territory. Territory means designation for a type of political and geographical with recognized borders. The international community considers our unilateral decision to separate from Somalia not more than a tribal issue. Further to the above, Somali-land fail to accomplish something of Political is diplomacy which is the art and practice of conducting negotiation between representatives of states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, war, economic, culture and human rights. Internationally treaties are usually negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by national politicians. In an informal or social sense, diplomacy is the employment of tact to gain strategic advantage or to find mutually acceptable solutions to common challenges. New York and Washington is respectively world headquarters of diplomacy. In addition to the above, the world is not a place whereby any group of people forms governments in the shape that they have in preference, as there is united nations charter which establish its principles, which article 1 and 2 are detailed underneath
Articles 1.
1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.
1. The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
2. All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
3. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
4. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
5. All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.
6. The Organization shall ensure that states which are not Members of the United Nations act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security.
7. Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll. In conclusion, diplomatic recognition appears to be very distant unless we could we obtain from the Somali federal government which we are presently negotiating with.
Ismail Yusuf.