tho the territorial outcome is still unclear
nevertheless complete prisoner exchanges between
somaliland & puntland in the past week
http://allafrica.com/stories/200512070086.html
http://allpuntland.com/eng/news_item.asp?NewsID=1934
likely mark the end of their recent border war over
the sool & sanaag regions
& the buuhoodle district of togdheer just to the west
of sool
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/somalia_pol02.jpg
which together comprise the eastern & slightly bigger
half of historic aka british somaliland
this development could greatly simplify the path to
full somaliland independence from somalia
within definite borders
& possibly also tho less likely full puntland
independence too
from what would then become a progressively rumpy
somalia
as shown here approximately & not at all necessarily
in its likeliest 3 cuts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puntland
& there is no mention of a territorial treaty in the
news perhaps simply because neither of the parties is
considered a sovereign enough country to treat to one
oops
or of one
or however that is supposed to be said
the above cia map as well as the more detailed
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/MapCenter/Map.aspx?TextLatitude=8.929399217895616&TextLongitude=47.1670222003982&TextAltitude=8&TextSelectedEntity=216&SearchEnc=false&MapStyle=Comprehensive&MapSize=Large&MapStyleSelectedIndex=0&searchTextMap=laascaanood+somalia&MapStylesList=Comprehensive&ZoomOnMapClickCheck=on&ResultsListbox=9.45996909481857%3B47.1670222003982%3B2%3B216%3BSomalia%2C+Africa%3BLarge%3BComprehensive
indicate the mentioned sool capital las anod as
laascaanood
so the mentioned party town of ariade or ari adey
could be adhicadeeye just to its nw on the encarta map
seeing as they do spell so funny around there
but the real question for crystal ball gazing
multipointers becomes
whether somaliland will remain whole when she secedes
or whether some territory of any of these 3 contested
ethnically puntish regions will fall to punt
if somaliland manages to establish independence within
her full formerly british territory
then her new world class tripoint will fall at the
point also generally recognized as the easternmost of
ethiopia
aka ete
& indeed thats where there used to be an etgbit world
class tripoint
between 1908 & 1940 i think it was
both de jure & de facto for at least that long
& where there was still a world class tripoint
just as lovely but by some other name til as recently
as 1960
it is of course still a huge if tho
not only because puntland won the war
but also because it wouldnt be the first territorial
nibble by punt from the original somaliland
as you can see in the cia map by the 10x80km bulge of
nugaal into sool just west of garoowe
which is evidently a postcolonial creation
as these maps suggest
http://www.civicwebs.com/cwvlib/africa/somalia/1951/general_survey/chapter_9.htm#468.
& which are also good btw to see the ethnic
distributions
& the whole world
but particularly the african union for some strange
reason
whose opinion evidently really matters to the destiny
of this prospective somaliland tripoint
i can tell you
has extreme fetishes about maintaining all the
ridiculous old colonial boundary lines in place
as well as about keeping all presently whole countries
entire as much as possible
& that odd fact alone has been the biggest stumbling
block to the birth of this tripoint so far
as it probably will continue to be
but i have a hunch or maybe only a hope that the
reason for this sudden outbreak of peace
above & beyond the fact that somaliland is an
intrinsically agreeable & peace loving place
is that
now that she has shown herself to be a model democracy
& so fully deserving of independence
some quiet but larger deal has been struck
& some clear arrangement been made
& probably not just locally & bilaterally but pan
somalian or more likely pan african in scope
or maybe it even happened in dc or turtle bay
that will provide for somaliland to make good her
escape from somalia
if not entire
then with her primary ethnic constituency whole
& i should think much relieved by being relieved of so
much of herself & the possibility of future internal
ethnic strife
by such a clean & timely cut
& tho i wish i could see rather than only imagine what
they are talking about in section 95 regarding the
missing illustration 11 here
http://www.civicwebs.com/cwvlib/africa/somalia/1951/general_survey/chapter_4.htm#F.
it is my best but still not very educated guess that
the flake off line & military front & timely cut would
run along this mentioned somewhat crooked old british
cut line too
pretty much right down the middle of the colony
most of which still survives to divide sanaag & sool
from western somaliland
& which evidently once reached & would again reach
ethiopia
to produce a brand new world class tripoint
at about nlat8d20m x elong46d10m
as you can also see or imagine on the nicely gridded
encarta map about 20km wnw of the etso border town of
buuhoodle
for that is my crude but best guess & frankly hope for
the new breakaway somaliland tripoint at the moment
& it is crude not only because my estimated window in
tens of minutes is pretentiously narrow
& needs to be refined based on a better map
but also because i dont really know but only surmise &
wishfully think
for the sake of elegant simplicity too
that the buuhoodle district of the eastern togdheer
region is the part of this region lying only south of
the sool region
& thus was formerly within western british somaliland
too
so all just nice guess
but there you have my new best guess in any case
almost together with the morning news rushes
except it is already just afternoon here on ice cream
hill
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