Somaliland: A View on Channel 4 programme "Dispatches"

The British tv network, Channel 4, recently aired a programme on the dire situation in Somalia. The programme entitled "Dispatches: Warlord´s Next Door", is at times horrifying, heartrending and unintentionally farcical.

In the programme, the reporter Aidan Hartley reveals how key politicians at the heart of the vicious fighting in Somalia - described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis - enjoy incredibly close links to Britain. They have British or EU passports, their families live in Europe and they commute between Somalia and homes in European cities. British and EU taxpayers are financing them in the name of democracy - yet in Somalia they are linked to allegations of mass murder, torture, extortion and corruption.

On the other hand the Somaliland Diaspora, most of them living in the Britain and EU, are helping to build the nation through investment and support. The difference between Somaliland and Somalia is clear for all to see.

It is heartbreaking to see the suffering of the innocent people caught in the struggle between the two sides, the insurgents and the local government. Vicious fighting between insurgents and the government forces has killed more than 7,000 civilians and produced the largest exodus from a capital city since Pol Pot's Cambodia.

The devastation of the land and its inhabitants are horrifying, sadly, the people of Somalia are once again living under a clannish dictatorship that appears to be following the Siyad Barre blueprint, nepotism, corruption, extortion, torture and mass murder.

The farcical thing is that this current dictatorship is internationally recognised and funded. So much so, that one of the people featured in the documentary worked in a car assembly plant, but miracle of miracles, he is now a police general practising corruption, extortion, torture and mass murder, and here is the final touch, this man´s salary is being paid by the international community whilst three million people starve in Somalia.

The people of Somaliland are saddened by the events in Somalia, but they see a certain déjà vu in these events in as much that Somalilanders have already been through this before, in fact, for more than thirty one years until 1991.

The Channel 4 programme clearly illustrated why the people of Somaliland reclaimed their sovereignty in 1991, and have no intention of resuscitating the defunct union with Somalia.