The U.S. bombing of Somalia took place while the
World Social Forum was underway in Kenya and three days before
a large anti-war action in Washington, January 27. Nunu Kidane,
network coordinator for Priority Africa Network (PAN) was present
in Nairobi, and after returning home asked out loud how “to explain
the silence of the US peace movement on Somalia?”
Writing in the San Francisco community newspaper
Bay View, she suggested one reason I think valid: “Perhaps
US-based organizations don’t have the proper analytical framework
from which to understand the significance of the Horn of Africa
region. Perhaps it is because Somalia is largely seen as a country
with no government and in perpetual chaos, with 'fundamental Islamic'
forces not deserving of defense against the military attacks by
US in search of 'terrorists'.” To that I would add: the major
U.S. media’s role in the lead up to the invasion and the suffering
now taking place in the Horn of Africa. “The carnage and suffering
in Somalia may be the worst in more than a decade -- but you'd
hardly know it from your nightly news,” wrote Andrew Cawthorne
from Nairobi for Reuters last week. Amy Goodman’s
Democracy Now recently examined ABC's, NBC's and CBS's
coverage of Somalia in the evening newscasts since the invasion.
ABC and NBC had not mentioned the war at all. CBS mentioned the
war once, dedicating a whole three sentences to it. This, despite
the fact that there have been more casualties in this war than
in the recent fighting in Lebanon.
While the major U.S. print media has not completely
ignored the conflict, its reporting is even shallower than its
reporting was prior to the invasion of Iraq. As recently as last
week, Reuters was still maintaining that Ethiopian troops
had invaded its neighbor with the “tacit” support of the United
States. At least the New York Times has taken to describing
it as “covert American support.” Both characterizations obscure
the truth. The attack on Somalia was preplanned and would never
have taken place without being approved by the White House. We
now know that the Bush Administration gave the Ethiopian government
the go ahead to ignore its own imposed ban on weapons purchases
from North Korea in order to gear up for the battle ahead. U.S.
military forces took part in the assault.
“US political and military alliance with Ethiopia
– which openly violated international law in its aggression towards
Somalia, is destabilizing the Horn region and begins a new shift
in the way the US plans to have permanent and active military
presence in Africa,” wrote Kadane.
The planning for the invasion actually began last
summer when the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) took control of
the Somali government. It, too, was supposed to be a slam dunk.
The U.S.-Ethiopian version of shock and awe was to swiftly bring
about the desired regime change, installing the Washington-favored,
government-in-exile of President Abdullahi Yusuf. Only a few days
after their troops entered the country, Ethiopian officials said
their forces lacked the resources to stay in Somalia and they
would be leaving soon. At one point, Ethiopian Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi declared – Bushlike - that the invaders’ mission
had been successfully accomplished and two-thirds of his troops
were returning home. That turned out not to be true. Three months
later the Ethiopians are still in Somalia committing what numerous
observers are calling horrendous war crimes.
“The obviously indiscriminate use of heavy artillery
in the capital has killed and wounded hundreds of civilians, and
forced over 200,000 more to flee for their lives.” Walter Lindner,
German Ambassador to Somalia, wrote to the country’s acting president
last week. Displaced persons are “at great risk of being subjected
to looting, extortion and rape - including by uniformed troops”
at a various "checkpoints." "Cholera - endemic
to the region during the rainy season - is beginning to cut a
swathe through the displaced,” he continued, adding that attempts
by international groups to offer assistance to the victims are
being obstructed by militias who are stealing supplies, demanding
“taxes” and threatening relief workers.
On April 3, the Associated Press reported
that a senior European Union security official had sent an email
to the head of the EU delegation for Somalia warning that “Ethiopian
and Somali military forces there may have committed war crimes
and that donor countries could be considered complicit if they
do nothing to stop them. I need to advise you that there are strong
grounds to believe that the Ethiopian government and the transitional
federal government of Somalia and the African Union (peacekeeping)
Force Commander, possibly also including the African Union Head
of Mission and other African Union officials have, through commission
or omission, violated the Rome Statute of the International Criminal
Court," the e-mail said.
In the meantime, the Bush Administration has worked
hard to raise troops from nearby cooperative states to take over
the job. Promises were made, but with one exception, remain unfulfilled.
In a telephone conversation, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni
promised President Bush to provide between 1,000-2,000 troops
to protect Somalia's transitional government and train its troops.
The Ugandans arrived but are said to have been largely confined
to their quarters, refraining from taking part in the effort to
crush the opposition. Meanwhile, the “Transitional Government”
and Ethiopian forces have been reported shelling civilian areas
in the capital from the government compound they are supposedly
guarding.
None of the reporters on the scene appear to have
explored the question of why the other African governments have
failed to send troops but I think the answer is obvious. They
would be called “peacekeepers” but would be called upon to inject
themselves into a civil conflict on the side of an unpopular puppet
government, something they are loathed to do.
Three months ago, I wrote in this space that “If
the unfolding events in Iraq are any indication, what started
out as a swift invasion and occupation could turn out to be a
long and widening war.” That was an understatement. As of this
writing, about 1,300 people are reported to have perished in the
fighting, over 4,300 wounded and nearly 400,000 have fled their
homes.
Refugees trying to cross the Red Sea are reported
drowning off the Somali coast.
"There is a massive tragedy unfolding in Mogadishu,
but from the world's silence, you would think it's Christmas,"
the head of a Mogadishu political think-tank told Cawthorne. “Somalis,
caught up in Mogadishu's worst violence for 16 years, are painfully
aware of their place on the global agenda.”
"Nobody cares about Somalia, even if we die
in our millions," Cawthorne was told by Abdirahman Ali, a
29-year-old father-of-two who works as a security guard in Mogadishu.
And, just as in Iraq, the U.S. supported forces –
the small army of the enthroned and very unpopular government
and the invaders – are caught up in a civil war, set in motion
by the invasion and occupation. In addition to the forces loyal
to the overthrown Islamist government, the regime in power is
opposed by the Hawiye, one of the country’s largest clans. A spokesman
for the clan recently called upon “the Somali people, wherever
it exists, to unity in the fight against the Ethiopians. The war
is not between Ethiopia and our tribe, it is between Ethiopia
and all Somali people,” he said.
"For the major [world] leaders, there is a tremendous
embarrassment over Somalia," Michael Weinstein, a US expert
on Somalia at Purdue University told Reuters. "They
have committed themselves to supporting the interim government
-- a government that has no broad legitimacy, a failing government.
This is the heart of the problem. ... But Western leaders can't
back out now, so of course they have 100% no interest in bringing
global attention to Somalia. There is no doubt that Somalia has
been shoved aside by major media outlets and global leaders, and
the Somali Diaspora is left crying in the wilderness."
Last week, during what was described as a lull in
the fight, Ethiopian soldiers were moving from house to house
in the capital Mogadishu, taking hundreds of men away by the truckloads
to an uncertain fate. Meanwhile, the traumatized residents of
the rubble strewn city were reported gathering up bodies, many
of them rotting, for burial. “Most of the displaced civilians
are encamped on Mogadishu's outskirts, where the scenes are medieval,”
reported The Economist last week. “People lack water, food
and shelter. Cholera has broken out. The sick sometimes have to
pay rent even to sit in the shade of trees. Things will get worse
with the rains, which have started. Aid agencies say people will
soon start dying in large numbers. Some reckon Somalia is facing
its biggest humanitarian crisis, worse than in the early 1990s,
when the state collapsed amid famine and slaughter.”
Martin Fletcher wrote in the London Times, April
26, about five days he spent in Mogadishu, during which he canvassed
many ordinary Somalis. “Overwhelmingly, they loathed a government
they consider a puppet of the hated Ethiopians.”
Last week the Washington Post reported that
interviews it conducted in Ethiopia and testimony given to diplomats
and human rights groups, “paint a picture of a nation that jails
its citizens without reason or trial, and tortures many of them
-- despite government claims to the contrary.”
“Such cases are especially troubling because the
U.S. government, a key Ethiopian ally, has acknowledged interrogating
terrorism suspects in Ethiopian prisons, where some detainees
were sent after being arrested in connection with Ethiopia's invasion
of Somalia in December,” said the Post story. “There have
been no reports that those jailed have been tortured.” The following
day, the paper reported, “More than 200 FBI and CIA agents have
set up camp in the Sheraton Hotel here in Ethiopia's capital and
have been interrogating dozens of detainees -- including a U.S.
citizen -- picked up in Somalia and held without charge and without
attorneys in a secret prison somewhere in this city, according
to Ethiopian and U.S. officials who say the interrogations are
lawful.”
History will probably record the Ethiopian government’s
decision to team up with the U.S. Administration for regime change
in Somalia as the height of folly. The country has enough problems
at home. This was brought into sharp relief April 24, when forces
of an ethnic-Somali separatist group, the Ogaden National Liberation
Front, raided an oil exploration facility, killing 74 people,
including nine employees of a Chinese oil company. “As Much as
China’s – and indeed America’s – ally Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian
prime minister, might like to be on top of security across the
Horn, he is not always able to deliver,” said the Financial
Times editorially April 26. “His army is the region’s most
powerful conventional force. But under his rule, Ethiopia is fraying
again around the edges. Armed separatist groups are now changing
tactics. Unable to match the army on the battlefield, the Ogaden
National Liberation Front has chosen the spectacular to draw attention
to its cause. Only recently, a separatist group in the north tried
something similar, by kidnapping a group of British diplomats.”
“Both horrific events can be attributed partly to
fallout from Ethiopia’s messy intervention in neighboring Somalia,”
said the newspaper. “Initial battles last December were decisively
in Ethiopia’s favor. But like the Americans in Iraq, the Ethiopians
in Somalia were ill prepared for the aftermath. A growing insurgency
has delayed the withdrawal of their troops, exposing the government
to attacks at home. It has also inflamed tension among ethnic
Somalis in Ethiopia, who fight for the ONLF.
“Ironically, the Chinese workers killed near Ethiopia’s
border with Somalia may have been victims more of Washington’s
policy in the region than of Beijing’s. The US has actively backed
Mr. Meles’s Somali adventure. In doing so it has undermined multilateral
efforts to bring about peace.”
“There are two main questions that Colonel Yusuf's
and Ethiopia's western backers should now ask themselves,” said
the Guardian April 26. “What was gained by encouraging
the Ethiopian army to topple the Islamic Courts? The US allowed
Ethiopia to arm itself with North Korean weapons and also participated
in the turkey shoot by using gunships against suspected insurgents
hiding in villages near the Kenyan border. Washington was convinced
that the Islamic Courts were sheltering foreign terror suspects.
But how many did they get and what price have Somalis paid?”
“America can be more heavily criticized for subordinating
Somali interests to its own desire to catch a handful of al-Qaeda
men who may (or may not) have been hiding in Mogadishu,” said
The Economist. “None has been caught, many innocents have
died in air strikes, and anti-American feeling has deepened. Western,
especially European, diplomats watching Somalia from Nairobi,
the capital of Kenya to the south, have sounded the alarm. Their
governments have done little.”
Chatham House, a British think tank of the independent
Royal Institute of International Affairs, has concluded, "In
an uncomfortably familiar pattern, genuine multilateral concern
to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Somalia has
been hijacked by unilateral actions of other international actors
-- especially Ethiopia and the United States -- following their
own foreign policy agendas.”
Actually, there is no more reason to believe the
Bush Administration promoted this war, in clear violation of international
law and the UN Charter, “to catch a handful of al-Qaeda men,”
than that the invasion of Iraq was to eliminate weapons of mass
destruction. What has unfolded in over the past three months,
flows from much larger strategic calculations in Washington.
The invasion and occupation of Somalia coincided
with the Pentagon’s now operational plan to build a new “Africa
Command to deal with what the Christian Science Monitor
dubbed “Strife, oil, and Al Qaeda.”
When I first visited this subject shortly after the
invasion, I quoted a 10 percent figure for the proportion of petroleum
our country takes in from Africa and noted that some experts were
saying the U.S. will need to up that percentage to 25 by 2010.
Wrong again. Last week came the news that the U.S. now imports
more oil from Africa than the Middle East, with Nigeria, Angola
and Algeria providing nearly one-fifth of it -- more than from
Saudi Arabia. While the rulers in Addis Ababa claim the invasion
was a preemptive attack on a threatening Somalia and the Bush
Administration says giving a wink and a nod to the attack was
only a chance to capture a few terrorist holed up in Somalia,
for most of the media and diplomatic observers outside the U.S.
it was another strategic move to secure positioning in the region
where there is a lot of oil. On file are plans – put on hold amid
continuing conflicts - for nearly two-thirds of Somalia’s oil
fields to be allocated to the U.S. oil companies Conoco, Amoco,
Chevron and Phillips. It was recently reported that the U.S.–backed
prime minister of Somalia has proposed enactment of a new oil
law to encourage the return of foreign oil companies to the country.
Salim
Lone, spokesperson for the United Nation mission in Iraq in 2003,
now a columnist for The
Daily Nation in Kenya, recently told Democracy Now:
“the prime minister’s attempt to lure Western oil companies
is on a par with his crying wolf about al-Qaeda at every turn.
Every time you interview a Somalia official, the first thing you
hear is al-Qaeda and terrorists. They’re using that. No one believes
it. No one believes it at all, because all independent reports
say the contrary.”
I spoke with Kidane last week and she allowed that
the situation in Somalia might seem complex to many in the peace
and social justice movements. However, she said it is impossible
to overlook the parallel with the situation in the Iraq. “It’s
aggression, that is undeniable, and the same language is being
used to justify it,” she said. Kidane is on target in insisting
that the movements for peace and justice in the U.S. – and elsewhere
– must take up the issue. The unlawful U.S.- Ethiopian invasion
and occupation of that country and the accompanying human suffering
and human rights abuses constitute a new – and still mostly hidden
– war in many ways similar to that in Iraq. And, waged for the
same reason.
BC Editorial Board member Carl Bloice is a writer in
San Francisco, a member of the National Coordinating Committee
of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
and formerly worked for a healthcare union. Click
here to contact Mr. Bloice. |