Word: somalilanders
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Dates: during 2001-2001
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HARGEISA, Somalia - I've been more frightened before. And laughed harder. But never have I experienced the same intense combination of fear and amusement that I did during a recent visit with Somaliland's minister of information. You probably haven't heard of Somaliland - it's a would-be country in the north-western bit of Somalia, a nation state that ceased to function as such a decade ago. But while the south has been torn apart by incessant violence ever since and is only now attempting to move beyond government by the ubiquitous warlords, Somaliland has forged a more...
...country?s unrecognized status was the primary concern of Ali Warande, Somaliland's minister of information, on a recent afternoon. "Recognize us," he urged. "Look how well we are doing compared to the rest of Somalia." I was interviewing Warande, along with a BBC TV journalist, in the sitting room of his modest house in Hargeisa, capital of the breakaway republic. After a brief discussion, we asked him if we could see his pets, which include four cheetahs and a lion. Sure, said the minister, "I'll show you how I play with them." Outside he let the lion...
Incredibly, parts of Somalia have avoided the years of chaos. The self-declared state of Somaliland in the northwest has its own government, police force and currency. Together with Puntland in the northeast, it offers its citizens stability and peace. Like the warlords, both ministates boycotted the Djibouti peace conference and challenge the new President's claim to represent the entire country. The government in Mogadishu says it will not force the northerners into the nation but will lure them back by building a federal system that allows each region a measure of autonomy--a kind of political balance they...