PRESS RELEASE: Northern Somali Unionist Movement (NSUM)
Northern Somali Unionist Movement (NSUM)
Date: 2008-06-28
PRESS RELEASE
Subject: Appointment of Matt Bryden
The Northern Somali Unionist Movement (NSUM) joins the chorus of outcry from all Somalis committed to the unity and territorial integrity of their country against the appointment of Mr. Matt Bryden as member of the group up by the UN Security Council for monitoring the arms embargo imposed on Somalia. This appointment is all the more shocking and incredible given the fact that the Security Council chose to ride roughshod over the objections of the Permanent Mission of Somalia to the United Nations in New York to Mr. Bryden’s appointment. What this amounts is that the interest of an individual is far more important among his selectors than the concerns of the Somali Mission and the wider Somali people inside and outside the country.
Mr Bryden has for many years gone out of his way to identify himself with the secessionist enclave in NW Somalia calling itself “Somaliland” and to brazenly campaign for its recognition. No more so was he a tireless advocate of the case for Somaliland’s separation from Somalia than the time he was based in Nairobi representing the International Crisis Group (ICG) for the Horn of Africa. Given his partisan track record for the Somaliland cause, and not least the fact that he is married to a “Somalilander”, many in the secessionist enclave see him as their most committed sympathiser.
Over the years, Somalis have come to be cynical about the indifference of the UN, be it the Security Council or the various agencies based in Nairobi whose raison d’etre is to supposedly help Somalia. For many of them, the appointment of Matt Bryden is no help but merely adding their on-going tribulations. The Somali government, and certainly Somali civil society originations, have no choice but to campaign against the bias of the Monitoring Group as long as Mr. Matt Bryden is a member. It is too much to expect the Security Council reversing its misguided action. But hopefully, Mr. Bryden might do the decent and honourable thing and resign from the Monitoring Group. He will do the UN and Somalia a big favour even if that is bound to be to the dismay of the secessionists.
Northern Somali Unionist Movement (NSUM) is a grass roots Somali organization whose members and supporters hail from Sool, Sanaag and Cayn regions in the Northern regions of Somalia(formerly British Somaliland) and whose clan in these regions do not identify with the one -clan-driven secession calling themselves” Somaliland”. NSUM stands for the promotion of peace and unity among the long-suffering people of Somalia.