WHEREAS the former colony of British Somaliland was briefly independent before forming a unified state, the Republic of Somalia, with the neighboring former colony of Italian Somalia in 1960, and
WHEREAS British Somaliland was exploited almost from the beginning of that union, as resources were disproportionately allocated to the south of the nation, and
WHEREAS the resentment caused by this unfair treatment and the tyrannical rule of Somalian dictator Siad Barre ultimately sparked a civil war which lasted until Barre was overthrown in 1991, and
WHEREAS British Somaliland promptly declared itself to be independent once again upon freeing itself of Barre's rule, as the Republic of Somaliland, and
WHEREAS since that time the Republic of Somaliland has acted as a stable and responsible state, with relatively free and fair elections and a system of government combining democratic and traditional elements which enjoys wide support among the people, while the rest of Somalia remains a failed state mired in interclan warfare, and
WHEREAS the Republic of Somaliland should be recognized and rewarded for its fifteen years of relative peace and stability, rather than punished by being forced to link its destiny to a Somalia that has no foreseeable prospects of rising above fratricidal chaos, and
WHEREAS fifteen years of de facto independence means that the Republic of Somaliland is now more than half as old as the Kingdom of Talossa, and
WHEREAS the Republic of Somaliland meets the definition of a state contained in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, which further declares that the political existence of a state is independent of recognition by other states, and
WHEREAS the Republic of Somaliland's lack of international recognition is hampering its economic development and trapping its people in poverty by precluding international support and capital investment, and
WHEREAS the Republic of Somaliland has assumed the same boundaries it had when it originally achieved independence in 1960, and therefore complies with the African Union policy on territorial integrity, and
WHEREAS on 13 December 2005, Dr Ian Pearson, then Minister of State for Trade in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom, in response to a question from Kerry McCarthy MP (Bristol East)(Labour), stated that it was the opinion of the British government "that African countries should take a lead in any eventual recognition process" regarding Somaliland, and
WHEREAS the Kingdom of Talossa is somehow in many respects a spiritually Berber nation, and the Berbers are an African people,
THEREFORE the Ziu hereby enacts that:
- The Kingdom of Talossa recognizes the Republic of Somaliland as a free, sovereign, and independent state, with all the rights and responsibilities of other states under international law.
- The Prime Minister shall, personally or through his Minister of Foreign Affairs, communicate the Kingdom's recognition of Somaliland to its government, and extend His Majesty's best wishes for their future prosperity and success.
- The Prime Minister shall direct his Minister of Foreign Affairs to direct the Kingdom's various ambassadors to use their good offices to encourage recognition of the Republic of Somaliland by the states to which they are accredited.
- The Kingdom of Talossa extends an especial invitation to the United Kingdom to follow Talossa's lead as a vicariously African country in recognizing the independence of its former colony and longtime friend, the Republic of Somaliland. The Kingdom of Talossa's ambassador to the United Kingdom shall exhort the United Kingdom to do right by its former protectorate.
- Within ninety days of the passage of this Act, the Prime Minister shall report to the Ziu on the status of the Government's efforts in carrying out the objectives described herein.
Ureu q'estadra så,
Xhorxh Ûnamînd (RUMP)