Somali govt must urgently set up team to probe Muse Bihi’s ‘crimes against humanity’ in Las Anod

By The Star Editorial Board

The Somali government has finally found its voice and offered a badly needed clarity on the ongoing bloodshed in Las Anod. Its Permanent Representative to the United Nations Abukar Osman “Baale” last Wednesday affirmed that the militiamen of the so-called Somaliland, a clan entity headquartered in Hargeisa, had committed atrocities against Las Anod residents and that they would be held responsible for their actions.

“What is happening in Las Anod today is a crime against humanity and is against the value of the Somali people. In that regard, there can be no impunity of such crimes of indiscriminate attack on civilians and civilian infrastructure,” Abukar told a UN Security Council session. “Furthermore, the federal government of Somalia is committed to investigate[ing] and hold[ing] the perpetrators accountable.”

The US and a UN expert on human rights in Somalia, Isha Dyfan, have since added their voices to the growing chorus of calls for accountability. So far, more than 185,000 people – 89 per cent of whom are women and children — have fled their homes as a result of the aggression on Las Anod that started in earnest earlier this month.

The Somali government must urgently set up an independent commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of the crimes committed by Muse Bihi’s militiamen who on Saturday continued their indiscriminate shelling of Las Anod. The Somali public needs to know the truth about the crimes the Bihi militiamen had committed in Las Anod. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud must in particular prove that he’s not putting clan interests above the nation’s when it comes to the Las Anod issue.

The bloodletting in Las Anod must be stopped and Bihi’s militiamen ordered to halt their attacks on civilians targets, such as hospitals, schools, markets, mosques and residential areas. The militiamen must return to their clan areas and leave Las Anod alone. Bihi, the ringleader who has effectively metamorphosed into a warlord rather than the politician he liked to market himself, mustn’t be allowed to prevail, for that will mean more atrocities for Las Anod people.

President Hassan and Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre must cease issuing throwaway statements on Las Anod that only expose the national government’s laziness and its lack of initiative. The Las Anod issue needs an urgent intervention. In fact, the Isaaq people, who’re part of the Somali nation, are desperate for an urgent deliverance from the snake oil salesmen who, for more than three decades, fed them lies that they would get an internationally recognized independent republic.

The Las Anod aggression laid bare the falsity and fragility of the so-called Somaliland. The Isaaq’s invasion of Las Anod has stirred up distrust and animosity among clans living in the northwestern regions of the country. Non-Isaaq clans are now fleeing Isaaq-majority towns and cities. Cargo vessels have diverted their goods from the port of Berbera to the port of Gara’ad for security concerns.

The delusional and myopic bunch in Hargeisa who thought that they had a country, peace and booming business are now having its rude awakening. Somaliland is already Humpty Dumpty and it will be impossible to put it back together, making the need to avert lawlessness in the wider northern belt as urgent as stanching the bloodshed in Las Anod. Somaliland’s inevitably upcoming dissolution should not give way to revenge attacks and inter-communal clashes over land and pasture.

Bihi’s aggression could have been avoided had President Hassan and Prime Minister Hamza treated differences between Dulhabante and Isaaq seriously and not erroneously talked of the “Somaliland government” and “the Las Anod people.”

The most shameful and irresponsible statement came from President Hassan. “If we’re to part ways, let’s do it agreeably,” the president said, trying to appease Bihi. He, however, disregarded the country’s territorial integrity and indirectly recognized the clan entity in Hargeisa.

The president’s justification for the weird pacifism was unacceptable. “You [Somaliland] yourself said I want to be independent, and no one is combating you…. We want the unity through peace and we want it through agreement. We don’t want to spill blood [for the sake of unity],” President Hassan said.

President Hassan must learn to carefully choose his words. He’s is the head of state and every word that comes out of his mouth is being scrutinized locally and internationally. He’s not a clan elder; he’s the symbol of the Somali people everywhere in the world.

President Hassan should know that the Somali unity is sacrosanct and inviolable. Any entity — clan or otherwise, foreign or local – that tries to undermine Somalia’s unity should be dealt with firmly and militarily. Every foreign country and entity should know that there would be dire consequences for violating Somalia’s unity. The Tigrayan-led Ethiopia learned that the hard way when it invaded the country in late 2006. Gallant Somalis forced the invaders to turn tail and run away in the dead of the night after two years of abuses.

President Hassan’s latest speech on Las Anod was teeming with contradictions. He, at one time, said his government stands for unity and then implied that he’s not ready to defend it.

“We rejected to fight you, to antagonize you, even diplomatically, the northern Somalia, or the Somaliland government…. But what we want is, we stand for unity and want it and shall not compromise on it. There will be nothing [or] interest that can ever be given or pledged that we will exchange for it[unity],” he said self-contradicting himself.

This kind of wishy-washy policy is the one that saddled the country with five clan-based regional administrations, whose chiefs do almost anything they want and are not answerable to anyone.

President Hassan and Prime Hamza must be forceful in their pronouncements, aggressive in following them up and determined in punishing those who want to dismember the country. Bihi’s militiamen must be forced to quit Las Anod to save lives and aid vulnerable civilians.

The so-called Somaliland — already a fake, clan entity that was in the first place midwifed and protected by evil-minded foreigners — will soon be history. Its collapse should revitalize the unity of the Somali nation. That responsibility falls on the shoulders of President Hassan and Prime Minister Hamza.