Somalia:
What The News
Failed To Report
By Ramzy Baroud
19 November, 2007
Countercurrents.org
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.net)
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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