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There was a good WaPo article yesterday on considerations within the Bush administration to abandon the transitional Somali government (the one we backed Ethiopian efforts to reinstall last year) and back a separatist movement in Somaliland. To give a brief and crude account, Somaliland is the part of the Somalia that was a British colonial possession; the rest was an Italian colonial possession, and the two parts were unified in the 1960s. Somaliland (in which considerably more order has been maintained than other parts of Somalia) has been seriously seeking independence since 1990, and already runs its own affairs. While either full or de facto recognition of Somaliland makes some sense on its own merits, the decision to dismember Somalia would have wider implications:
The official U.S. government position is that the United States should withhold recognition from Somaliland because the African Union has yet to recognize it. "We do not want to get ahead of the continental organization on an issue of such importance," said Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi E. Frazer in an e-mailed response to questions.The issue is diplomatically sensitive because recognizing Somaliland could set a precedent for other secession movements seeking to change colonial-era borders, opening a Pandora's box in the region.Like Kosovo and potentially Kurdistan, there's a lot to say for Somaliland independence. But at some point people are going to start asking questions about all these dismembered states we seem to be leaving in our wake ...--Robert Farley
