Information on this specific subject is currently unavailable to the DIRB. It may be interesting to note, however, that Somaliland is composed of five provinces: Awdal, North West, Togheer, Sool and Sanag. According to a Somali professor of African studies at the University of Florida in Gainsville, and a former director of higher education in Somalia now resident in Ottawa, each of these provinces is controlled by a clan which in turn has its own militia (6 Apr. 1994; May 1994). A report entitled Balancing Consensus and Dissent: The Prospects for Human Rights and Democracy in the Horn of Africa, and published by the Fund for Peace in the Horn of Africa, states that there are powerful checks on the power of the executive in Somaliland. The power of the clans, demonstrated in their reluctance to turn control of the national airport in Hargeisa and seaport in Berbera over to the national government indicates that these are independent and diffused loci of potential resistance to the state, (Bricker and Leatherbee 1994, 31).

This response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Dricker, Dale and Lea Leatherbee. 6 January 1994. Balancing Consensus and Dissent: The Prospects for Human Rights and Democracy in the Horn of Africa. New York: The Fund for Peace.

Somali former director of higher education in Somalia, Ottawa. 4 May 1994. Telephone interview.

Somali professor of African studies, University of Florida, Gainsville. 6 April 1994. Telephone interview.