Bush's Blood-Orgy in Somalia:
"They Are
Slaughtering
Somalis Like
Goats"
By Mike
Whitney
"Land is
not our
priority.
Our priority
is the
people's
peace,
dignity and
liberty. It
is the
people that
are
important to
us."
Sheikh
Sharif
Ahmed, Head
of the
Islamic
Courts Union
(ICU)
07/07/08
"ICH"
-- -- While
George Bush
was busy
railing at
Zimbabwe's
President,
Robert
Mugabe at
the G-8
summit in
Toyako,
Japan; his
Ethiopian
proxy-army
in Somalia
was grinding
out more
carnage on
the streets
of
Mogadishu.
More than 40
civilians
have been
killed in
the last 48
hours. On
Sunday,
Osman Ali
Ahmed, the
head of the
UN
Development
Program in
Somalia, was
shot
gangland
style as he
left a
mosque
Mogadishu.
He died
before he
reached the
hospital
with wounds
to the head
and chest.
Ali Ahmed is
just the
latest of
the
peace-keepers
who have
been killed
in the
ongoing
battle
between
Bush's
Ethiopian
occupiers
and Somali
guerrillas.
"I care
deeply about
the people
of
Zimbabwe,"
Bush
announced.
"And I am
extremely
disappointed
in the
election
which I
labeled a
sham
election."
Right.
Bush's
newly-discovered
empathy for
black people
was nowhere
in sight
during
Hurricane
Katrina when
thousands of
African
Americans
were rounded
up at
gunpoint and
forced into
the
Superdome
without
food, water
or medical
supplies.
Nor is it
visible in
Somalia
today where
millions of
Somalis have
been forced
to flee
their homes
and relocate
to tent
cities in
the south
because of
Bush's
support for
the
Ethiopian
army's
invasion.
The latest
surge in
violence has
been the
worst in a
decade and
the security
situation
continues to
deteriorate
despite the
arrival of
2,600 troops
from the
African
Union and a
tentative
truce that
was signed
in June
between some
of the
warring
factions. It
should be no
great
surprize
that the
western
media has
stubbornly
refused to
report on
the rising
death-toll
in Somalia,
choosing
instead to
focus all of
their
attention on
America's
"villain du
jour",
Robert
Mugabe.
Mugabe is
next on the
neocon's
list for
regime
change.
Neocon
Godfather
Paul
Wolfowitz
even
composed a
postmortem
for
Zimbabwe's
president in
a recent
Wall Street
Journal
editorial
"How to Put
the Heat on
Mugabe".
In 2006, the
United
States
supported an
alliance of
Somali
warlords
known as the
Transitional
Federal
Government (TFG)
who
established
a base of
operations
in the
western city
of Baidoa.
With the
help of the
US-backed
Ethiopian
army,
western
mercenaries,
US Navy
warships,
and AC-130
gunships;
the TFG was
able capture
Mogadishu
and force
the Islamic
Courts Union
(ICU) and
their allies
to retreat
to the
south. But,
much like
Iraq and
Afghanistan,
the
resistance
has
coalesced
into a
tenacious
guerrilla
army which
has returned
to the
capital and
resumed the
fight making
it
impossible
for their
Ethiopian
rivals to
govern. As
the struggle
continues,
the
humanitarian
situation
gets worse
and worse.
At least 2.6
million
Somalis are
now facing
famine due
to acute
food
shortages
spurred by a
prolonged
drought,
violence and
high
inflation.
UN monitors
have warned
that the
figure could
hit exceed
3.5 million
by the end
of 2008.
The UN
Security
Council has
played its
traditional
role as
facilitator
of
American-backed
imperial
violence by
failing to
condemn US
involvement
in Somalia
and by
promising to
send
peacekeepers
to mop up
after
violence
subsides.
The UN has
shown no
interest in
stopping the
carnage and
have become
little more
than the
glove-hand
of the US
military; an
accomplice
to Bush's
chronic
adventurism.
In an
interview
with Amy
Goodman on
Democracy
Now, Salim
Lone, a
columnist
for the
Daily Nation
in Kenya and
a former
spokesperson
for the UN
mission in
Iraq
explains the
UN's role in
providing
the "go
ahead" for
the US
invasion:
"The
lawlessness
of this
particular
war is
astounding;
the most
lawless war
of our
generation.
You know,
all
aggressive
wars are
illegal. But
in this
particular
one, there
have been
violations
of the UN
Charter and
gross
violations
of
international
human
rights. But,
in addition,
there have
been very
concrete
violations
by the
United
States of
two Security
Council
resolutions.
The first
one was the
arms embargo
imposed on
Somalia,
which the
United
States has
been
routinely
flaunting
for many
years now.
But then the
US decided
that that
resolution
was no
longer
useful, and
they pushed
through an
appalling
resolution
in December,
which
basically
gave the
green light
to Ethiopia
to invade.
They pushed
through a
resolution
which said
that the
situation in
Somalia was
a threat to
international
peace and
security, at
a time when
every
independent
report
indicated,
and Chatham
House’s
report on
Wednesday
also
indicated,
that the
Islamic
Courts Union
had brought
a high level
of peace and
stability
that Somalia
had not
enjoyed in
sixteen
years.
So here was
the UN
Security
Council
going along
with the
American
demand to
pass a
blatantly
falsified UN
resolution.
And that
resolution
actually was
a violation
(of the) the
UN Charter.
You know,
the UN
Charter is
like the
American
Constitution
and the
Security
Council is
not allowed
to pass laws
or rules
that violate
the Charter.
And yet, who
is going to
correct
them?"
The Bush
administration
has
predictably
invoked the
"terrorist"
hobgoblin to
justify its
involvement
in Somalia,
but no one
is buying
it. The ICU
is not an Al
Qaida
affiliate or
a terrorist
organization
despite the
absurd
claims of
the State
Dept. It is
true that
the ICU was
trying to
enforce
Sharia Law,
but a much
milder form
of Sharia
than in
Saudi
Arabia. The
ICU was the
first
government
in over a
decade to
restore
security and
order to
Somalia
and--generally
speaking--the
people were
supportive
of the new
regime.
Political
analyst
James Petras
summed it up
like this:
“The ICU was
a relatively
honest
administration,
which ended
warlord
corruption
and
extortion.
Personal
safety and
property
were
protected,
ending
arbitrary
seizures and
kidnappings
by warlords
and their
armed thugs.
The ICU is a
broad
multi-tendency
movement
that
includes
moderates
and radical
Islamists,
civilian
politicians
and armed
fighters,
liberals and
populists,
electoralists
and
authoritarians.
Most
important,
the Courts
succeeded in
unifying the
country and
creating
some
semblance of
nationhood,
overcoming
clan
fragmentation.”
The real
motives
behind the
invasion
were oil and
geopolitics.
According to
most
estimates 30
per cent of
America's
oil will
come from
Africa in
the next ten
years.
Bush's new
warlord-friends
in the
Transitional
Federal
Government (TFG)
have already
indicated a
willingness
to pass a
new oil law
that will
encourage
foreign oil
companies to
return to
Somalia. The
same oil
giants that
are now
lining up in
Iraq will
soon be
making their
way to
Somalia as
well. The
Horn of
Africa is
also
critical for
its
deep-water
ports and
strategic
location for
future
military
bases. It's
all part of
the Grand
Schema for
reconfiguring
the region
to
accommodate
America's
hegemonic
ambitions.
Humanitarian
Catastrophe:
"The
Ethiopian
invasion has
destroyed
all the
life-sustaining
systems"
Heavy
fighting and
artillery
fire have
reduced
large parts
of Mogadishu
to rubble.
More than
700,000
people have
been forced
to leave the
capital with
nothing more
than what
they can
carry on
their backs.
Entire
districts
have been
evacuated
and turned
into ghost
towns. The
main
hospital has
been bombed
and is no
longer
taking
patients.
Ethiopian
snipers are
perched atop
rooftops
across the
city. Over
3.5 million
people are
now huddled
in the south
in tent
cities
without
sufficient
food, clean
water or
medical
supplies. It
is without
question the
greatest
humanitarian
crisis in
Africa
today; a
man-made
Hell
entirely
conjured up
in
Washington.
Just weeks
ago, Amnesty
International
reported
that it had
heard many
accounts
that
Ethiopian
troops were
"slaughtering
(Somalis)
like goats."
In one case,
"a young
child's
throat was
slit by
Ethiopian
soldiers in
front of the
child's
mother.”
In another
Democracy
Now
interview,
Abdi Samatar,
professor of
Global
Studies at
the
University
of
Minnesota,
had this to
say:
"The
Ethiopian
invasion,
which was
sanctioned
by the US
government,
has
destroyed
virtually
all the
life-sustaining
economic
systems
which the
population
have built
without the
government
for the last
fifteen
years. And
the militia
that are
supposed to
protect the
population
have been
looting
shops. For
instance,
the Bakara
market,
which is the
largest
market in
Mogadishu,
has been
looted
repeatedly
by the
militias of
the
so-called
Transitional
Federal
Government
of Somalia,
supported by
Ethiopian
troops. And
the new
prime
minister of
Somalia, Mr.
Hassan Nur
Hussein, has
himself
announced in
the BBC that
it was his
militias
that—who
have looted
this place.
So what you
have is a
population
that’s hit
from both
sides--on
one side, by
the militias
of the
so-called
Transitional
Federal
Government,
which is
recognized
by the
United
States, and
on the other
side, by the
Ethiopian
invaders who
seem to be
bent on
ensuring
that they
break the
will of the
people to
resist as
free people
in their own
country....
What you
have is
really
terror in
the worst
sense of the
word, a
million
people have
been
displaced
that the
Ethiopians
have been
denying
humanitarian
aid, and the
United
States which
seems to
just watch
and let it
happen. It’s
like there's
has been a
calculated
decision
made
somewhere in
the world,
maybe in
Washington,
maybe in
Addis Ababa,
maybe in
Mogadishu
itself, to
starve these
people until
they submit
themselves
to the whims
of the
American
military and
the
Ethiopians,
who are
acting on
their
behalf."
Amnesty
International
has called
for an
investigation
of the
United
States role
in Somalia.
Regrettably,
neither the
United
Nations nor
the
corporate
media are at
all
interested
in Bush's
war crimes
in Africa.
What they
care about
is Mugabe.
Notes
Somalia: Troops killing people 'like goats' by slitting throats-new Amnesty report
