In December of last year, Ethiopian forces entered neighbouring Somalia on request of the fragile corrupted Somali government of warlords.
The intervention came in order to topple the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) that took control of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and other parts of the country during the summer of 2006.
The USA gave its support to Ethiopia by sending its war planes to bomb what it claimed to be ‘terrorist targets’ in Somalia as part of the new front in the ‘war on terror’. According to the charity Oxfam, the American bombing resulted only in the death of 70 Somali shepherds who were around a fire with their animals in order to keep mosquitoes at bay.
There are also reports of the US government supplying the Ethiopian forces with weapons and intelligence as well as allowing Ethiopia to purchase arms from North Korea
The Ethiopian intervention came on the back of undemocratic elections which allowed the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, to stay in power for a third term in a row. This led to the isolation of the Ethiopian government in the international arena.
Sending his troops into Somalia was the Ethiopian dictator’s opportunity to end his isolation. The Ethiopian leaders must have understood the history of Western policy in the Horn of Africa very well – a policy, according to the letters sent by Western European kings and leaders to the king of Ethiopia during the 15th century, that encouraged the African Christians to wipe out the ‘infidel Muslims’.
The American-backed Ethiopian intervention in Somalia ended a short period of peace and security brought to Mogadishu by the UIC after about 15 years of warlord rule in the eastern African country. For ordinary Somalis, the invasion of their predominantly Muslim country by their mainly Christian neighbour meant the missionaries were back, but this time with tanks.
Growing evidence suggests that the Ethiopian forces are involved in war crimes in Somalia. More than 200,000 people – about 20 percent of Mogadishu’s population – have fled the Somali capital, with about 1,000 reported to have been killed between 28 March and 2 April of this year.
The Hawiyah tribe, one of the most influential tribes in Mogadishu, accused the Ethiopian forces of genocide. The EU envoy in neighbouring Kenya, Eric van der Linden, asked about the possibility of investigating war crimes as a result of the disproportionate use of force.
What’s happening in Somalia is a proxy war fought on behalf of the USA in which African Christians are sent out to murder African Muslims in order to strengthen American dominance in that part of the world and to keep corrupted African dictators in power.
It is the colonialist politics of ‘divide and rule’ repeated all over again. Sectarianism and bloodshed are far from helping the African countries to stand on their feet.
It seems to be that the USA has learnt the lesson from the previous empires of Britain and France. The partition of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan by Britain, while keeping the predominantly Muslim Kashmir in Indian hands, ensured that sectarian tension between the two Asian neighbours will always be there – which has led to a nuclear arms race between the two countries.
France left Lebanon in 1943; the country was left divided on a sectarian basis reinforced and reflected by the structure of the political establishment approved by France before leaving. This led to a civil war between the years of 1975 and 1990 that, coupled with the Israeli invasion in 1982, has devastated the country and led to mass migration.
Foreign troops should leave Somalia and the warlords should not be given power again. The Somali people and other Third World countries should be given the right to elect their leaders.
The Western colonialist interventionists, the USA in particular, are not the only problem obstructing democracy and development in poor countries, but depriving third world dictators from such support is an essential condition in order to oust them.
Mohammed Samaana is a Palestinian living in Belfast
The USA gave its support to Ethiopia by sending its war planes to bomb what it claimed to be ‘terrorist targets’ in Somalia as part of the new front in the ‘war on terror’. According to the charity Oxfam, the American bombing resulted only in the death of 70 Somali shepherds who were around a fire with their animals in order to keep mosquitoes at bay.
There are also reports of the US government supplying the Ethiopian forces with weapons and intelligence as well as allowing Ethiopia to purchase arms from North Korea
The Ethiopian intervention came on the back of undemocratic elections which allowed the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, to stay in power for a third term in a row. This led to the isolation of the Ethiopian government in the international arena.
Sending his troops into Somalia was the Ethiopian dictator’s opportunity to end his isolation. The Ethiopian leaders must have understood the history of Western policy in the Horn of Africa very well – a policy, according to the letters sent by Western European kings and leaders to the king of Ethiopia during the 15th century, that encouraged the African Christians to wipe out the ‘infidel Muslims’.
The American-backed Ethiopian intervention in Somalia ended a short period of peace and security brought to Mogadishu by the UIC after about 15 years of warlord rule in the eastern African country. For ordinary Somalis, the invasion of their predominantly Muslim country by their mainly Christian neighbour meant the missionaries were back, but this time with tanks.
Growing evidence suggests that the Ethiopian forces are involved in war crimes in Somalia. More than 200,000 people – about 20 percent of Mogadishu’s population – have fled the Somali capital, with about 1,000 reported to have been killed between 28 March and 2 April of this year.
The Hawiyah tribe, one of the most influential tribes in Mogadishu, accused the Ethiopian forces of genocide. The EU envoy in neighbouring Kenya, Eric van der Linden, asked about the possibility of investigating war crimes as a result of the disproportionate use of force.
What’s happening in Somalia is a proxy war fought on behalf of the USA in which African Christians are sent out to murder African Muslims in order to strengthen American dominance in that part of the world and to keep corrupted African dictators in power.
It is the colonialist politics of ‘divide and rule’ repeated all over again. Sectarianism and bloodshed are far from helping the African countries to stand on their feet.
It seems to be that the USA has learnt the lesson from the previous empires of Britain and France. The partition of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan by Britain, while keeping the predominantly Muslim Kashmir in Indian hands, ensured that sectarian tension between the two Asian neighbours will always be there – which has led to a nuclear arms race between the two countries.
France left Lebanon in 1943; the country was left divided on a sectarian basis reinforced and reflected by the structure of the political establishment approved by France before leaving. This led to a civil war between the years of 1975 and 1990 that, coupled with the Israeli invasion in 1982, has devastated the country and led to mass migration.
Foreign troops should leave Somalia and the warlords should not be given power again. The Somali people and other Third World countries should be given the right to elect their leaders.
The Western colonialist interventionists, the USA in particular, are not the only problem obstructing democracy and development in poor countries, but depriving third world dictators from such support is an essential condition in order to oust them.
Mohammed Samaana is a Palestinian living in Belfast
