The ironic paradox in the summer of 2002 was that, while a government did not actually exist in Mogadishu, it was recognized and disingenuously promoted by the U.N.; in contrast, the functioning and democratically elected Somaliland government, that owed virtually everything to its own efforts, remained unrecognized. This absurd anomaly did nothing to assist southern Somalia's recovery. Indeed, in many respects it retarded its real development. However much it may have served the interests of numerous layers of U.N. bureaucracy (and subsidiary professional peace makers), and sustained Italian nostalgia, this travesty of reality condemned the T.N.G. to a fantasy existence, and obscured and distorted the true situation in southern Somalia.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 705