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Somaliland must be internationally recognised says campaigner

May 22, 2011   ·   224446 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2Fsomaliland-must-be-internationally-recognised-says-campaigner-22444Somaliland+must+be+internationally+recognised+says+campaigner2011-05-22+21%3A38%3A26Mo+Guledhttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2F%3Fp%3D22444

He helped found the Welsh Refugee Council and gave assistance to others for more than 20 years. Now Eid Ali Ahmed wants to help his homeland Somaliland get international recognition. He shares his thoughts with Abbie Wightwick

As a nomad Eid Ali Ahmed is used to moving on. It’s in his blood along with the taste of fresh camel’s milk and the scent of the desert.

He says it’s this spirit that kept him going through 30 years of being a refugee, opposing the dictatorship of Siad Barre and being torn from the family and country he loved.

Eid, now 62, fled the north of Somalia as a wanted man from the dictatorship of General Siad Barre in 1981.

Like most of the estimated 10,000 Somalis living in South Wales, Eid is from the northern part of Somalia, which was a British protectorate before being given independence and joining with the south, a former Italian colony, to form Somalia in 1960.

In 1969 Barre seized power in a military coup declaring the country a socialist republic.

Civil war and violence followed in the 1980s before the Somali Liberation Movement, to which Eid belonged, toppled Barre in 1991 and declared the north an independent country – Somaliland.

Eid, who comes from a wealthy Muslim nomad family, was a trainee banker in 1969 when Barre came to power.
Permitted to travel abroad to train for a limited time only, he fled – deliberately becoming stateless but, as he hoped, free.

After a decade working in the US and Saudi Arabia the young banker eventually returned home 10 years later when Barre announced an amnesty for those who’d left without permission.

But it was a bittersweet return. Eid found his country in ruins, his father dead and Barre ruling.

Determined to change things, he joined the secret opposition Hargeisa Group and the Somalia Liberation Movement.

It was a risky endeavour and one that many of his comrades didn’t survive.

In 1981 arrests and killings began. Members of the groups were imprisoned or shot and Eid feared for his life.

One day on a business trip to neighbouring Djibouti he received a chilling phone call from friends: “Don’t come back,” they warned. “You’ll be killed.”

So he fled again, eventually reaching Cardiff in 1987.

The city’s historic Somali population, which came via commerce and the docks in the 19th century and escaping war in the 20th, offered some hint of home.

“Wales has been good to me,” Eid says.

“It became part of my life.”

Unable to work at first he was not one to sit around doing nothing so set about helping found the Welsh Refugee Council.

When the WRC launched in 1991 it had just one employee. By the time Eid left last month it had more than 50 employees.

During his 21 years at the organisation Eid worked first as a trustee for 10 years and then as an employee for 11 years in many departments, including being deputy director.

During this time he studied and raised a family.

As well as banking qualifications Eid has an MBA, a PGCE and is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personal Development, all skills that he believes can help him help his home country.

His early years in Wales were an exciting time when Eid began to feel both Welsh and a Somalilander.

Soon family came to join him, strengthening his ties here. Eid’s mother came to Wales via an Ethiopian refugee camp in the 1990s as did niece Salma Ali, now 24, who came to Cardiff aged six and studied at the University of Glamorgan.

She now considers herself Somali/Welsh and is one of the next generation Eid hopes will help rebuild his country.

As development coordinator for Somaliland Societies in Europe and UK committee member for the anniversary celebration in London next week, Eid is lobbying for international recognition of Somaliland.

He is pulled towards his homeland but wants to work from here, not sure if he’d live there permanently now.

“I have been so long here now,” he explains.

“It was very emotional leaving the WRC and I’m reflecting now on what to do.

“Without a job at the moment maybe now it is the time to give back more to Somaliland, my country of origin,” he says.

Certainly he’s lost none of the passion that led him to becoming a freedom fighter against Barre.

“You look at what’s happening in Libya and people say they support democracy. Then why not recognise Somaliland?” he asks.

“It is very strange. I really don’t understand.

“I hope it will be recognised. You have to hope.

“Without recognition companies can’t come and drill our oil because they can’t get insurance. Transport is also bad.

“If we were recognised people could have passports and travel.”

He looks into the distance, perhaps recalling childhood summers in the bush.

Eid’s family spent every summer as nomads in the bush with their goats.

He may have been a freedom fighter but watching the goats taught him patience too.

“Change won’t be quick but eventually things will get better there,” he adds.

A rally to mark the 20th anniversary of Somaliland is being held at Old Palace Yard, Westminster, from 1pm on Wednesday

Source:Walesonine.co.uk

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By Mo Guled

Tags: Somaliland, Somaliland Wales Community, Somalilandpress