CONTENTS

1. Somaliland's missing identity
2. Somaliland: Stability amid economic woe
3. Somaliland: Ten Years On

BBC. 5 May, 2005, 10:12 GMT 11:12 UK

By Simon Reeve, Author and broadcaster, Places That Don't Exist

Somaliland declared independence after the overthrow of Somali military dictator Siad Barre in 1991

There are almost 200 official countries in the world but there are dozens more unrecognised nations determined to be independent. They have rulers, parliaments and armies, but they rarely feature on maps and receive few foreign visitors.

Few people know that Somaliland is home to such treasures. Figure missing.

Somaliland's government minister for tourism was elated that he finally had a rare foreign visitor he could take to see his country's national treasures.

"Don't worry," said the enthusiastic minister, as I reluctantly agreed to accompany him to some rock etchings recently discovered at Laas Ga'al outside Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland.

"The drawings are beautiful, and it will just be a small detour from the road!"

As we bumped along potholed dirt tracks through the parched African bush, I started to think my scepticism was justified.

But we dodged wiry bushes on a wide plain and scrambled over vast boulders to find exquisite rock paintings dating back thousands of years.

Even under the scorching sun, the paintings had strong, vibrant colours and stark outlines, showing the ancient inhabitants of the area worshipping cattle.

Laas Ga'al, it transpires, is probably the most significant Neolithic rock painting site in the whole of Africa.

Off the map

For a brief moment I felt like an explorer finding hidden treasures, at a time when the entire world seems within easy reach.

But there are still places off the beaten track, like Somaliland, which can excite and amaze.

Somaliland is not on many tourist maps. In fact, it is not on any maps at all.

According to the international community, Somaliland does not even exist.

Across the globe there are dozens of unrecognised countries, and I embarked on a journey to a group of them who declared independence after conflicts with a neighbouring state.

In the case of Somaliland, that is Somalia and with a BBC film crew I began several months of travel by flying into a dusty airstrip just outside Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

Mr Big Beard

Years of fighting have destroyed once-beautiful Mogadishu.

"Somaliland's main attraction is its determined and inspirational people ".

Abandoned by the international community, it is among the most dangerous cities in the world.

After paying a dozen guards to provide protection, I went to the main market and bought myself a Somali passport from a gentleman called Mr Big Beard.

Although Somalia has no police or real government, the rest of the world recognises it as an official country.

By contrast Somaliland, in the north of Somalia, has a government, police, army and traffic lights, but no recognition, making it extremely difficult for the country to attract aid and investment.

Warring nations

A UN cargo flight took us north to Somaliland, and a smartly dressed Somaliland immigration official stamped our passports when we landed.

His presence and uniform was an immediate sign of order.

Britain is the former colonial power in Somaliland, and Somalilanders fought alongside British troops during World War II.

They struggle to understand why the UK has not recognised their country.

Yusuf Abdi Gabobe, my towering local guide, explained that Somaliland voluntarily joined with Somalia after independence from Britain.

But when the relationship soured, Somalilanders fought a war for complete independence in the 1980s.

Visiting Somaliland was a humbling lesson in survival and self-determination.

Hargeisa, where 50,000 died during the conflict, is being rebuilt with little outside help, and refugees are returning from camps in Ethiopia.

A Somali MiG jet that bombed the city sits atop a poignant war memorial.

Outside Hargeisa there were the ancient rock paintings to visit, and stunning journeys into the mountains and up to the port of Berbera, home to a runway hired by Nasa as an emergency space shuttle landing strip.

Tracks run along the coast west from Berbera towards Djibouti, and mangroves, gorgeous islands and coral reef.

But Somaliland's main attraction is its determined and inspirational people. Largely ignored by the world, they are building an independent state from scratch.

Many fear war between Somalia and Somaliland could erupt again, but perhaps one day the people of the Horn of Africa will have the peace and security they desperately want, and foreign visitors will start to return.

It is nothing less than Somalilanders and Somalis deserve.

Ahmed Hassan is sitting behind a large stack of Somaliland shillings on one of the dusty streets of the market place in the capital Hargeisa.

He and other money changers are doing a brisk trade, converting between shillings, dollars and euros.

"We watch TV every morning to check the strength of the dollar," he says, as a wheelbarrow arrives, piled high with Somaliland shillings.

Somaliland has its own currency, along with its own national anthem and flag. It even issues its own passports.

But Somaliland is a country in limbo, a state in waiting which no other country recognises.

'Unhappy marriage'

Former British Somaliland became independent in 1960 and joined Italian Somalia to the south a few days later to form the Somali Republic.

"We Somalilanders have built this country from the ruins, no-one has helped us". - President Kahin

But it was an unhappy marriage and in the 1980s, a rebel movement formed in the north to fight against the increasingly oppressive rule of Siad Barre.

After Barre's fall in 1991, clan elders in the former British protectorate met and agreed to unilaterally declare independence from the rest of Somalia.

Traditional clan-based negotiations have brought a remarkable degree of stability - a sharp contrast to the continuing violence in some other parts of Somalia.

Peace has allowed refugees to return and businesses to re-establish. In Hargeisa's market, Ahmed Hassan and other money-changers keep only a casual eye on the mounds of Somaliland currency.

"You see a lot of money here, but do you see any police, any guns? We have peace here," he said.

Fragile economy

Elsewhere in the capital, multi-storey buildings are springing up and newly-opened car dealerships compete to give the best prices for imported second-hand jeeps and pick-ups.

"We Somalilanders have built this country from the ruins, no-one has helped us," Somaliland's President, Dahir Riyale Kahin, told the BBC.

But the economy is still extremely fragile and poverty among Somaliland's population of 3.5 million is high.

Outside Hargeisa, at one of the many water points that dot the arid plain along the border with Ethiopia, Abdi Abdullahi waters his cattle.

"We are getting poorer, every year there is less grass for our livestock, and they produce less milk," he said.

Budgetary woes

More than half of Somaliland's population are nomadic pastoralists. The livestock sector, though, traditionally the backbone of the economy, can no longer support the growing population.

Increasing numbers of destitute herders have arrived on the edge of cities like Hargeisa, swelling the numbers of urban unemployed which the government acknowledges are now worryingly high.

A ban on importing livestock by Saudi Arabia, imposed in 1998 after claims Somali livestock was infected with disease, has had a crippling effect on both the rural and urban economies.

"Sixty per cent of our foreign currency was earned from the export of livestock to Saudi Arabia. Since the ban, the government has found it very difficult to make both ends of the budget meet," said Hussein Ali Duale, Somaliland's Minister of Finance.

Relying on remittances

Many families now survive on remittances from relatives who fled to Europe and North America during the civil war. The government estimates that the diaspora send back US $300m to Somaliland every year.

But remittances can provide only a short-term safety net.

"In the coming 15 to 20 years, most remittances will stop," said Mr Duale.

Somaliland's unresolved international status means it cannot access funds, from either private or public sources, on the scale required

He believes that the next generation among the diaspora will have looser ties to their homeland.

"A young boy of 18 will ask 'Why should I send money to Somaliland?"

This means the economy urgently needs to diversify. And that requires massive investment in sectors like infrastructure and education.

But Somaliland's unresolved international status means it cannot access funds, from either private or public sources, on the scale required.

President Kahin has promised to fight for greater democracy

"The obstacle is that some companies say they cannot take their assets to a country with no international recognition, even if the country is peaceful," said Mr Duale.

And although Somaliland does currently receive a modest amount of external aid, it has no access to World Bank or IMF funds, or to bilateral budget support.

Poison pill

But some Somalilanders believe additional aid, if it is channelled through the state, may be a doubled-edged sword.

"To a large extent what pushed tyranny in Somalia, and finally brought the collapse of the Siad Barre regime, was internal struggle over who will have what". Hussein Bulhan, Somaliland Institute for Development Solutions

"It will kill the patient, it's a poison pill," said Hussein Bulhan of Somaliland's Institute for Development Solutions.

"It will aggravate problems, there will be more struggles within the ruling elite. To a large extent what pushed tyranny in Somalia, and finally brought the collapse of the Siad Barre regime, was internal struggle over who will have what."

Hussein Bulhan believes restrictions up to now on the level of external assistance have forced local solutions to problems.

"That is part of why we had to create and to think and to improvise. These experts that come tend to make people uncreative. In Somaliland, people had to do it on their own," he says.

"Help should be received from the outside world, but the initiative has been taken and that should not be destroyed."

The challenge now for Somaliland is not just attracting large inflows of external resources - but attracting them under the right terms.

This month, the people of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, in the Horn of Africa, will mark ten years since they broke away from Somalia.

The self-declared republic has a government, an army, a national flag and an anthem. It even has its own currency. But in the decade that has passed, Somaliland has been unable to secure international recognition as an independent state.

Charles Haviland reports on how Somaliland is on the road to development despite its uncertain diplomatic status.

In 1960, British Somaliland, on the Gulf of Aden, and Italian Somaliland, on the Indian Ocean, gained independence from their colonial powers. In a spirit of pan-Somali nationalism, they merged to form the United Republic of Somalia. The former British colony comprised its north western part.

But that spirit of harmony did not last long. Hussein Bulhan, director of the Somaliland Centre for Peace and Development, explains:

'The iniquity began from the very start. There was a very disproportionate representation in the Parliament. The capital city became Mogadishu - in the South. The president was a southerner…the prime minister was from the south. So frustration began from the start.'

Internal Violence

In 1969, Muhammad Siad Barre assumed power in Somalia. He began to elect people from his own clan (the Marehan) for governments posts, to the exclusion of other clans, such as the Mijertyn and Issaq.

In the early 80s, opposition to Siad Barre's military regime began to emerge. Members of the Issaq clan formed a guerrilla group, to fight against southern rule. It was called the Somali National Movement (SNM). In 1988, the SNM launched an offensive in the northern cities of Hargeisa and Burco.

The forces of Siad Barre's government responded by bombarding the cities and pursuing the separatist rebels. Schools were razed; water and electricity were made inaccessible. Half a million northerners fled into Ethiopia. Some fifty thousand people died. Those who returned, after the Somali army had left the north, found their homes looted and mined.

Abdurrahman Ahmed Hassan, the chairman of a voluntary group recently set up to preserve the graves of civilians killed by government troops in 1988, describes what United Nations experts found during their excavations:

'People were chained together. Women and children also. I think, about thousands.'

Early in 1991, under pressure from opposition clans, Siad Barre fled Mogadishu. His departure offered the momentum for the north west to break away from Somalia and declare itself independent.

Break-Away Region

On 18 May 1991, Somaliland proclaimed itself independent with the slogan, 'No More Mogadishu.' Hargeisa was chosen as capital. In May 1993, a council of elders elected Mohammed Ibrahim Egal as the president.

During its first years, Somaliland was convulsed by internal clan-based violence. However, recently, rival clan members have reached power-sharing treaties.

Hussein Hassan Ali Mousseh, a clan elder from the town of Erigavo, in eastern Somaliland recalls: 'All the clans came here and said let us forget claims, let us begin a new chapter.'

In order for a new chapter to begin, clan members needed to be properly represented in the government.

The Issue Of Representation

Currently members of Somaliland's Parliament are chosen along clan lines. But this could change if a new draft multi-party constitution is approved by referendum at the end of May.

The legal adviser to the parliament, Ahmed Ali Kahen, explains:

'There has been an attempt to make a framework in which parties do not divide along those lines. There are going to be three main national parties and each party has to have representatives from all the other regions, where all clans are represented…It will resolve the issue of division along regional or tribal lines.'

The referendum is due to be followed by elections in 2002.

Unrecognised

So far, the international community has not recognised Somaliland's independent status and is unwilling to endorse the fragmentation of the Horn of Africa.

Because of its unofficial status, Somaliland can not enter into formal trade agreements with other nations or seek assistance from world financial institutions.

The national revenue relies on two main sources: livestock exports and remittances from the Somali diaspora. A population of roughly 3.5 million depends on these. A large percentage of the population live in poverty.

President Egal says Somaliland's unofficial status creates many obstacles: 'The most disabling thing is the lack of communication with the international community. We have no ambassadors. We only have international agencies…We have no telephone code of our own. We are still using the Somalia code.'

There are no proper banks but rather money traders who trade Somaliland currency - the shilling. As it is not a member of the international postal union, Somaliland must hire multinational companies, such as DHL, to deliver its mail abroad.

Attracting Foreign Investment

President Egal also says attracting foreign investment is difficult. Somaliland is believed to have rich oil deposits in the coastal region but companies interested in exploring them are hindered by the lack of proper insurance for their equipment and personnel.

In a move to fuel the economy in the region, President Egal has endorsed a liberal economic regime. Foreign companies are allowed to buy stakes in local enterprises, and small and medium-sized businesses are in the making.

The result is a thriving private sector. Somaliland currently has five private airlines, several electricity companies and as many as five telecommunications companies, which offer both mobile and landline telephone services.

Despite this economic boom, Somaliland still awaits diplomatic recognition ten years after declaring itself a nation.