Yesterday, South Sudan became the 193rd member of the United Nations. Where will the 194th be? One candidate must be Somaliland. It is surely absurd and iniquitous that the only area of the former Somalia that has a stable and reasonably free government is also the only part which does not have international recognition.
Another country where a sensible, internationally-brokered settlement could reasonably lead to independence is Nagorno-Karabakh. Having survived invasion and attempted ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, this Armenian inhabited region has, like Somaliland, been effectively self-governing since the mid 1990s. But as long as Nagorno-Karabakh’s status remains in limbo, extremist elements in Azerbaijan – which has indulged in recent years in a massive arms spending spree – may be encouraged to believe that a military ‘solution’ is possible.
We should also recognize the plight of the many peoples around the world who are fighting for liberty behind closed borders. In Sudan, now that South Sudan has left, the regime has made clear, in deeds as well as words, that its goal is the imposition of an Arab/Islamic hegemony. They have already made a start with the bombing and attempted ethnic cleansing of the black African Nuba people of South Kordofan.
The situation in Sudan is paralleled in Burma, where the junta has waged a brutal war against non-Burmese ethnic groups – much like that Khartoum waged against South Sudan – for over fifty years.
Injustices on the scale of Burma and Sudan must be resisted wherever they occur. Whether as citizens of an independent country or autonomous regions within a larger state, all the peoples of the world have a right to enjoy freedom in their own homes.
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