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Somalia: What the
News Failed to Report
By Ramzy Baroud
11/18/07 "ICH"
-- -- The people of Somalia are enduring yet another round
of suffering as Ethiopian forces wreck havoc in the capital,
Mogadishu. Apparently in response to an attack on one of its
units, and the dragging of a soldier’s mutilated body through
the city’s streets, an Ethiopian mortar reportedly exploded in
Mogadishu’s Bakara market on November 9, killing eight
civilians. A number of Somalis were also found dead the
following day, some believed to have been rounded up by
Ethiopian forces the night before.
Nearly 50 civilians have reportedly been killed and 100 wounded
in the two-day fighting spree between fighters loyal to the
Union of Islamic Courts and government forces and their
Ethiopian allies. A report, issued by Human Rights Watch,
chastised both Ethiopian troops and ‘insurgents’ for the
bloodletting. Peter Takirambudde, the watchdog’s Africa
director, was quoted as saying, 'The international community
should condemn these attacks and hold combatants accountable for
violations of humanitarian law - including mutilating captured
combatants and executing detainees.' Of course, one cannot
realistically expect the international community to take on a
constructive involvement in the conflict. Various members of
this ‘community’ have already played a most destructive role in
Somalia’s 16-year-old civil war, which fragmented a nation that
had long struggled to achieve a sense of sovereignty and
national cohesion.
To dismiss the war in Somalia as yet another protracted conflict
between warlords and insurgents would indeed be unjust because
the country’s history has consistently been marred by colonial
greed and unwarranted foreign interventions. These gave rise to
various proxy governments, militias and local middlemen, working
in the interests of those obsessed with the geopolitical
importance of the Horn of Africa.
Colonial powers came to appreciate the strategic location of
Somalia after the Berlin Conference, which initiated the
‘Scramble for Africa’. The arrival of Britain, France and Italy
into Somali lands began in the late 19th century and quickly the
area disintegrated into British Somaliland and Italian
Somaliland. Both countries sought expand their control,
enlisting locals to fight the very wars aimed at their own
subjugation.
World War II brought immense devastation to the Somali people,
who, out of desperation, coercion or promises of post-war
independence, fought on behalf of the warring European powers.
Somalia was mandated by the UN as an Italian protectorate in
1949 and achieved independence a decade later in 1960. However,
the colonial powers never fully conceded their interests in the
country and the Cold War actually invited new players to the
scene, including the United States, the Soviet Union and Cuba.
One residue of the colonial legacy involved the Ogaden province
of Somalia, which the British empire had granted to the
Ethiopian government. The region became the stage of two major
wars between Ethiopia and Somalia between 1964 and 1977. Many
Somalis still regard Ethiopia as an occupying power and view the
policies of Addis Ababa as a continuation of the country’s
history of foreign intervention.
The civil war of 1991, largely a result of foreign intervention,
clan and tribal loyalties, and lack of internal cohesion,
further disfigured Somalia. As stranded civilians became
deprived of aid, Somalia was hit by a devastating famine that
yielded a humanitarian disaster. The famine served as a pretext
for foreign intervention, this time as part of international
‘humanitarian’ missions, starting in December 1992, which also
included US troops. The endeavour came to a tragic end in
October 1993, when more than 1,000 Somalis and 18 US troops were
killed in Mogadishu. Following a hurried US withdrawal, the
mainstream media rationalized that the West could not help those
who refuse to help themselves; another disfiguration of the fact
that the interest of the Somali people was hardly ever a concern
for these colonial philanthropists. Since then, the importance
of Somalia was relegated in international news media into just
another mindless conflict, with no rational context and no end
in sight. The truth, however, is that colonial interest in the
Horn of Africa has never waned.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 provided an impetus
for US involvement in the strategic region; only one month after
the attacks, Paul Wolfowitz met with various power players in
Ethiopia and Somalia, alleging that al-Qaeda terrorists might be
using Ras Kamboni and other Somali territories as escape routes.
A year later, the US established the Combined Joint Task Force –
Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) to ‘monitor’ developments and to train
local militaries in ‘counterterrorism’.
The US contingent was hardly neutral in the ongoing conflict.
Reportedly, US troops were involved in aiding Ethiopian forces
that entered Somalia in December 2006, citing efforts to track
down al-Qaeda suspects. The Ethiopian occupation was justified
as a response to a call by Somalia’s Transitional Federal
Government (TFG), whose legitimacy is questioned. TGF, seen
largely as a pro-Ethiopian entity, had been rapidly losing its
control over parts of Somalia to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU)
which came to prominence in January 2006, taking over the
capital and eventually bringing long-sought stability to much of
the country. Their attempts engage the US and other Western
powers in dialogue failed, however, as a US-backed Ethiopia
moved into Somalia in December 2006. On January 7, 2007, the US
directly entered the conflict, launching airstrikes using AC-130
gunship. Civilian causalities were reported, but the US refused
to accept responsibility for them.
The last intervention devastated
the country’s chances of unity. It now stands divided between
the transitional government, Ethiopia (both backed by the UN,
the US and the African Union) and the Islamic courts (allegedly
backed by Eritrea and some Arab Gulf governments). Recently, the
UN ruled out any chances for an international peacekeeping
force, and the few African countries who promised troops are yet
to deliver (with the exception of Uganda).
This situation leaves Somalia once more under the mercy of
foreign powers and self-serving internal forces, foreshadowing
yet more bloodshed. Our informed support is essential now
because the Somali people have suffered enough. Their plight is
urgent and it deserves a much deeper understanding, alongside
immediate attention.
-Ramzy Baroud (
www.ramzybaroud.n t) is an author and editor of
PalestineChronicle.com . His work has been published in many
newspapers and journals worldwide. His latest book is The Second
Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto
Press, London).
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