SOMALIA/SOMALILAND: THE PRESIDENT OF THE BREAKAWAY REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND SAYS REUNIFICATION OF THE COUNTRY IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE

Record ID: 317592

  • Title: SOMALIA/SOMALILAND: THE PRESIDENT OF THE BREAKAWAY REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND SAYS REUNIFICATION OF THE COUNTRY IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE
  • Date: 19th November 2000
  • Summary: HARGEISA, SOMALILAND (NOVEMBER 19)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV OF STREETS IN HARGEISA (2 SHOTS) 0.08 2. CU SIGN ON BUILDING 0.12 3. SLV WOMEN WALKING ON THE STREET 0.16 4. LV OF STRRET 0.20 5. LV/SV STREET MARKET (3 SHOTS) 0.31 6. SV/CU OF WOMEN SELLING GOLD IN THE MARKET (2 SHOTS) 0.38 7. MCU OF MONEY CHANGER 0.42 8. SLV MARKET 0.46 9. SLV/CU STATE HOUSE AND SOMALILAND FLAG (2 SHOTS) 0.53 10. SV MOHAMED IBRAHIM EGAL, SOMALILAND PRESIDENT SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST 0.58 11. MCU (English) EGAL, SAYING: "We do not want to involve ourselves in the equation of the problems of Somalia but so long as Abdiqassim claims to be our president we must draw the lines that he is not president for anybody." 1.13 MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (FILE)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 12. SV SUPPORTERS WAITING FOR ABDIQASSIM SALAD HASSAN, PRESIDENT OF SOMALIA 1.16 13. MCU ABDIQASSIM ARRIVAL 1.19 14. SV GUNMEN/MILITIA WITH GUNS 1.22 15. MCU ABDIQASSIM BEING GREETED/MCU OF WOMAN (2 SHOTS) 1.32 16. SV CAR DRIVING AWAY/MILITIA WITH GUNS (5 SHOTS) 1.50 HARGEISA, SOMALILAND (NOVEMBER 19)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 17. MCU (English) EGAL, SAYING: "Abdiqassim is not better than what was there before him he is only a fuel to the fire which was burning before him." 1.59 18. SLV/SV/CU OF DESTRUCTION TO BUILDINGS IN HARGEISA (8 SHOTS) 2.31 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 4th December 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HARGEISA, SOMALILAND AND MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
  • Country: Somalia
  • Reuters ID: LVAEQSNPPUL0UO81KNUORDSLF3V7
  • Story Text: The president of the breakaway republic of
    Somaliland, says he will not talk to Somalia's new government
    in Mogadishu unless it first renounces its claims to his
    self-declared state.



    Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, president of the breakaway
    Somaliland republic, said reunification of the country was not
    impossible in the long term, but could never be imposed on his
    northern Somaliland region.

    Somaliland, a former British protectorate, declared its
    independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 after a brutal
    civil war, taking advantage of the overthrow of Somali
    dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

    In the years that followed, much of the rest of Somalia
    descended into clan-based anarchy, while the people of
    Somaliland rebuilt their region, largely in peace.

    But Somaliland's hard-won independence has never been
    recognised by the international community, and now its people
    fear the new government of Abdiqassim Salad Hassan in
    Mogadishu is bent on taking it away.

    "We do not want to involve ourselves in the equation of the
    problems of Somalia but so long as Abdiqassim claims to be our
    president we must draw the lines that he is not president for
    anybody," Egal told Reuters Television.

    Abdiqassim was appointed president of Somalia in August
    this year after a lengthy conference of Somali clan leaders in
    neighbouring Djibouti, although many of the country's most
    powerful warlords still oppose him.

    Egal did not attend the conference and said Abdiqassim had
    assured him before the meeting started it would only concern
    itself with the problems of southern Somalia.

    Since then, Abdiqassim has assumed the mantle of leader of
    a Somalia which includes Somaliland, Egal says. He has also
    appointed two northerners from Somaliland as his prime
    minister and foreign minister -- a move seen by many as an
    attempt to undermine Egal and divide Somaliland.

    "Abdiqassim is not better than what was there before
    him he is only a fuel to the fire which was burning before
    him," said President Egal.

    Egal dismissed the appointments, saying Abdiqassim was
    only
    shooting himself in the leg by trying to interfere in the
    north before he had brought peace to the south.

    Egal says that union never worked, and has long
    campaigned for Somaliland to be recognised within its old
    colonial borders. Even so, he holds out the possibility of
    eventual reunification.



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