Abdinor Sheikh Mohamed Ishaq (Isaac), a veteran BBC-Somali reporter was not able to conceal his partiality over the issue of Somalia-Somaliland talks, openly crowding Ambassador Bashe and Somalia MP Geesey for pointing out why they thought the Somalia incumbent leadership was an impediment to the continuation of the talks.
Moderating a ‘debate’ he held over the recent announcement the Somaliland President, Musa Bihi Abdi, made on cessation of talks unless Somalia credibly changed its intransigent attitude to acknowledge the right of Somaliland to come to the negotiating table as an equal partner.
President Bihi, touring the eastern regions of the Republic of Somaliland, declared that there was no point in Somaliland unilaterally pursuing the talks. He said Somalia left no stone unturned not only to sabotage interests actively violating the cumulative points which had been agreed upon at seven occasions that the two sides sat together to chart out a mutually acceptable way head.
The President emphatically underscored that Villa Somalia’s lopsided view of continued talks in the belief that Somaliland was not different from its federal states was no longer palatable to the Somaliland public and its leadership.
Reported Abdinor frequently interrupted MP Abdifattah Ismail and Somaliland Ambassador to Kenya, Bashe Awil omar, for pointing out the facts that led to the President’s proclamation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4CJOCoNgwo
At one point, Abdinor, heatedly reminds the MP that he was a Federal MP, pointedly asking if he originally hailed from Somaliland. The MP told him that he was entitled to voice his opinion to point out why he thought the current Somalia leadership has grossly and intentionally misinterpreted the essence and spirit upon which the talks were based.
Abdinor, also, tried time and again to break the thread of the MP and Ambassador’s arguments on why the President stopped hope for a re-start to the talks as they pointed out that the federal government of President Farmajo was the one which had so blatantly changed the course of that spirit.
The MP and the Ambassador, both, cited Mogadishu’s takeover of the Somalia-Somaliland airspace despite an agreement which the two sides reached in Istanbul in 2014 to share management, control and revenues forming a joint management board. They also pointed out the frequent attempts of Mogadishu to stop the special partnership arrangement with which the international community dealt with Somaliland.
Abdinor was quick to unfailingly dart in and try to stop both of them from elaborating on the theme whenever it was the turn of one or the other to air his views. In effect, he came out as an ardent advocate of ‘Somalia’ espying that things were not working in its favor in the debate as, perhaps, he would have wished.
Not only this but the BBC-Somalia service – along with its sister www.bbc.com English service – had, for the past decade or so, become extensions of Radio Mogadishu reveling in that new identity where they should have striven to maintain an objective stand for all Somali-speaking audiences. The BBC has also made a practice of frequently publishing a divided Somaliland map for its stories which no other news website did, marking large parts of it as ‘disputed area’.
The VOA-Somali Service is a little better but not that much when it comes to objective reporting on Somaliland.
READ MORE: No more soft-treading on talks with Somalia – President Bihi
Somaliland-SomaliaAgreement: Istanbul Communique II
