Ethiopia’s Hegemony on Somalis: the case in Somaliland

[Taleexi]

Ethiopia’s Hegemony on Somalis: the case in Somaliland

By Mohamed F. Yabarag

Sept. 20, 2010

 

Following the recent incursion of over 300 of allegedly ONLF men armed with RPGs and other light weaponry into “western Somaliland” from the long coastal line Somalia shares with Yemen among other countries, it is obvious to everyone that Ethiopian security forces can enter into any Somali territory at will and terrorize the local population whether that territory is on the notebook of Zenawi’s friendly countries or not. As far as Ethiopia is concerned the fight against “terrorism” will have the overriding priority over anything else.

Now, instead of defending its sovereignty and its people from Ethiopia’s marauding army, Somaliland officials have started blaming each other on who is going to bear the ultimate responsibility of this fiasco, and the finger of blame had already pointed at Awdal and Salal communities for abetting and aiding the ONLF fighters. Everybody knows Somaliland has neither the military might nor the political will to confront Ethiopia, but at least you would expect some to voice their anger and frustration at the lack of respect of the Ethiopian government towards them. Ethiopia’s killing and harassment of Somalis along the bogus borderline that divides between the two countries is not new. They used to kill Somalis at random like they did before in Dannood in the early sixties, Aisha’a in mid sixties and elsewhere. What is new today is the fact that there is no resistance on the Somali side, be it Huddur, Beled Weyne, Tog Wajaalle or Hariirad.

 

So much has changed in Somalia and for the Somalis to the worst of course since the ouster of the last recognized central government of the late and often posthumously vilified Mohamed Siyad Barre. Ethiopians must be dancing on his grave and rubbing their hands in glee, while the clannish Somalis are competing for the help and protection of their old nemesis, Ethiopia. What a transformation! Ma annaa waalan mise Cadan (Aden) baa laga heesayaa? Am I crazy, or someone is singing from afar/ Aden?

 

You look no further than the current situation in “Somaliland” and it’s squabbling over whom to hand in to the Ethiopians to become their latest victim to see how far Somalis have transformed from brave men and women who stood on their ground against the Ethiopian aggression since the days of Ahmed Gurey and the giant Makhtal Dahir to today’s self serving Abdi Mahmoud Omar, the current puppet president of Somali region. The current president comes after a long line of presidents who fall foul with Ethiopia’s strong man Meles Zenawi, who seems to have perfected the art of banging Somali heads together. Zenawi has now taken the back seat and let president Abdi do his dirty work in the Somali region in which the latter did not disappoint. Despite his effort to sell himself well to the big man, a docile attempt that failed his predecessors, sooner or later president Abdi will become another sorry statistic in the region with the blood of his fallen comrades in his hands.

 

My blood boils and my stomach churns in anger and frustration when I hear some so-called Somali politicians particularly those in Somaliland and Puntland uttering such words as “our Ethiopian brothers” and similar shortsighted remarks. I have nothing against the Ethiopian population (I have to emphasize here) but there are no brothers in the Meles Camp but killers and mass murderers.

 

Clannish Somalis must have the shortest memories of any human race on the whole universe. When did Ethiopian government become our best friend? Perhaps, since the collapse of the last Somali government. Have we not fought two bitter wars against them where we lost thousands of our brothers and sisters? Isn’t it Ethiopia that colluded with colonial powers during the infamous scramble for Africa to annex and occupy a large swathe of Somali territory to make its permanent land - the bone of contention of the current stalemate between the two people?

 

Are we suggesting that we were mad when we fought against them in all those years and that our previous ancestors and their leaders were a bunch of ****** who led us to unwinnable wars? Or perhaps because Ethiopia gave sanctuary to people who fled Somalia during our fratricidal civil war that it has earned to become the best available friend overnight. Don’t forget Zenawi was living on Somali taxpayer’s money for a long time. We should ask ourselves what gave courage and determination to the peasant man from Gondar, Wallaga and Tigrey to come all the way to Wajaalle, Wardheer, Fiq, Beled Weyne and Bay and Bakool region to dictate for the hapless Somalis living in those regions? All these questions beg answers, and the answers may lie in our doorsteps.

 

Shortly after the last Arab-Israeli war in 1973, Anwar Sadat, the then Egyptian president flew to Tel Aviv uninvited to initiate an unconditional peace accord with the Israelis to the surprise of the outside world and to the utter dismay of his fellow Arabs. A few years later a peace agreement between the two sides was signed in Camp David under the auspices of the US. The rest is history now as the Arabs were dealt a major blow by the said agreement as it gave a free hand to Israelis to meddle the Arab affairs.

 

Similarly, the clan-based so-called liberation movements such as SSDF, SNM, SPM, etc. that ousted Siyad Barre and his last government in early 1990s have without any shadow of a doubt given Ethiopia the ultimate power to meddle in Somalia’s internal affairs. The so-called autonomous regions (Maamul-goboleedyo) that sprang to life after the disintegration of Somali state have further fuelled the Somali misery to the extent that Ethiopian forces can come at will and apprehend any Somali in his/her own backyard.

 

In the case of Somaliland, Ethiopia has thrown the gauntlet to the newly-elected government of Ahmed Siilaanyo and labeled members of his cabinet as being Al Shabab sympathizers and Somaliweyn supporters. Consequently, the new government was all of a sudden on the back foot, and instead of confronting Ethiopia with facts, they simply caved in and started blaming their own people for the ONLF incursion, if there is one in the region. That is why Awdal elders are fighting back and the possibility of similar organization to SSC may not be ruled out in Awdal.

 

In conclusion, Somalis should learn one or two things from the latest fiasco in Somaliland: no Somali is spared from the long and cruel arms of Ethiopia’s security forces no matter how proud and powerful your clan is. In the eyes of Ethiopia’s Zenawi, no Somali regional government is immune from Ethiopia’s intervention. Those clans pointing the finger at Awdal and Salal communities could have a similar fate at anytime. If it was southern Somalia who bore the brunt of Ethiopia’s aggression yesterday, it could be Somaliland tomorrow and nobody ain’t gonna do a thing about it.

 

When Zenawi and fellow comrades were fighting against Mengistu’s Dergue regime many years back, there was a very popular political slogan among students, showing a picture of mass graves filled with human skeletons and the following message: THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP THEM UNITED.

 

Borrowing a similar line from that popular slogan, the only way to confront the permanent Ethiopian threat and menace is to get rid of these banana republics (Somaliland and Puntland included) and bring back the Somali nation to its glorious past. Nothing else can stand in the way of Ethiopian regimes.

 

Mohamed F Yabarag

E-Mail: myabarag@yahooo.co.uk

 

Source: WDN

[Che -Guevara]

When I hear and see a Somali person defending Ethiopian actions, I'm reminded of this

 

A 22-year-old man from Mogadishu told Human Rights Watch:

 

Some Ethiopian and government soldiers came to our house and said, "Where are you hiding them [the insurgents]?" We said we were not hiding anyone, and that's when they shot my father. He was just explaining to them that we did not see the people they are looking for and that we had been in the house all day, and they shot him, telling him he was lying. They shot him in the chest. My sister and mother were screaming at me to leave the place. But I wanted to resist, and I said, "Why are you doing this?" but they started beating me with the back of their guns.

 

The young man and his family were members of a minority clan that traces its ancestry partly back to immigrants from Portugal and so were unusually light skinned. The Ethiopian soldiers began joking that the young man's two sisters and mother looked more like Eritreans than Somalis.

With the family's father lying dead on the floor in front of them, several Ethiopian soldiers took turns raping the three women.

"And I was sitting there helpless," the young man said. "They started raping my sisters and they were screaming. They were there for almost three hours. I saw them raping my mother in front of me…I could not help my mother or help my sisters." At his mother's insistence, he left Mogadishu the next day.

HRW

 

The patterns of such attacks are strikingly similar: the Ethiopian military first issues orders to the villagers to evacuate the villages within two to seven days. When the villagers refuse to evacuate, the army returns to carry out killings and other atrocities, and burns the village. Should soldiers see villagers or pastoralists in the area after the evacuation and burning of the village, they are often beaten and detained, summarily executed or, if women or girls, raped.

HRW

 

The women were accused of supporting the ONLF, cooking food for the fighters and spying for the ONLF. Most of the women were being raped. As we were moved outside our room, I witnessed women who were interrogated and raped. I saw with my own eyes two girls being raped, at different times. We could hear their screams and could see these things with our own eyes. One girl was raped by five soldiers one night I was taken out, I was handcuffed at the time, and another time two girls were being raped just meters away from me. All the time when they interviewed the girls, they used to force them to undress themselves. Six soldiers were with the two girls when I saw them being raped; the interrogator was there also. When the women refused to answer the questions, the interrogator allowed the soldiers to rape them.

HRW

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Ethiopia boogeyman is on his hunting season

[Che -Guevara]

Sure Xaaji...Seeing your mom and sisters raped while your father lay dead on the floor makes Ethiopia a boogeyman.

 

 

Taleexi...Ethiopia has no absolute respect for any Somali entity or person-makes me wonder what goes through the mind of those that defend its action and do they really believe Ethiopia will spare them if they are no longer under its grace (which they never were but the mind does play tricks).

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Che Somalis raped killed murdered looted each other in the holy mosques and all kind of horrible awful things happened to what makes Ethiopia so special in this case.

[Che -Guevara]

^Somalis committed heinous crimes but does that give Ethiopia the right to rape, kill and torture Somalis? I don't understand your logic?

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

I didn’t say that gives Ethiopia the right to kill harass rape Somalis in Ethiopia how ever u make it sound like that Ethiopia is evil and they are the biggest problem Somalis are facing while Somalis them self’s invited Ethiopians in their capital for clan revenges

[Che -Guevara]

^I'm aware of what Somalis are or do but the crimes of the Ethiopian government against all Somali people and entities ARE evil.

 

The flaws of the Somali character is not justification for Ethiopia to commit heinous crimes against the Somali nation.This is what I don't understand people like you and others who makes excuses for the crimes committed by Ethiopians?

[The Zack]

Xaaji thinks Ethiopia is his friend. He probably rather deal with Ethiopians than "koonfurians".

[The Zack]

My blood boils and my stomach churns in anger and frustration when I hear some so-called Somali politicians particularly those in Somaliland and Puntland uttering such words as “our Ethiopian brothers” and similar shortsighted remarks. I have nothing against the Ethiopian population (I have to emphasize here) but there are no brothers in the Meles Camp but killers and mass murderers.

So true.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Sometimes I think Somalis are learn to hate everything they want to be perhaps jealousy look at Somalia look at Ethiopia I mean reread what I wrote Ethiopia is not Somalia’s problem Somalis are Somalia’s problem the day you understand that is the day Somalis can achieve things no one is making excuses for Ethiopia. You need to categorize things che Ethiopia is at war with the people from the ONLF region Ethiopia is not at war with the Somali people as a whole they are fighting a rebel movement. Somalis and Ethiopians stopped fighting long time ago wake up the last battle was in 1977. Everything else is just pure politics now minus the ONLF Struggle.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Originally posted by The Zack:

Xaaji thinks Ethiopia is his friend. He probably rather deal with Ethiopians than "koonfurians".

Ethiopia is neither my good friend nor is it my enemy we deal with Ethiopia as our neighboring country and have diplomatic relations And we have mutual interest that’s about it . As for the koonfurians we rather not deal with failed people.

[The Zack]

Xaaji,

 

Ethiopia is the main reason why Somalia has been a failed state since 1991. Every time one faction kicks the *** of another faction and starts taking over the country (Ex- The Islamic Courts), Ethiopia comes into play and helps the losing party because it wants the fighting game to continue. Ethiopia is behind most of Somalia's problems. I don't see whhy you fail to see that simple fact.

[Taleexi]

Che, If history is any indicator, when certain group, in this case Somalis, are in the verge of magnificent historical collapse, anything becomes no surprise. What streams in the minds of Somalis who support Ethiopian heinous crimes against humanity is the million dollar question. Even more, justifying Ethiopian actions by citing and equating with Somalis' misdeeds among them is not only unfair, distortion and misinformation but an insult of our intelligence. Mr. Che, if we look ahead in the horizon beyond what our sight can see while we keep rejoicing and collaborating with our enemy, when they slaughter our brothers, rape our mothers and sisters, wouldn't that qualify the beginning of the decay of Somali race?. I leave that historians and anthropologists to ponder and entertain.

 

However, the essence of Mr. Yabarag's piece is that the populous of my regions, in this case, PL and SL understand the threat posed by Ethiopia to our own existence but without the change of the leadership of those admins, aint we all singing in a vacuum?

 

"It takes whole village to raise a child", therefore Somalis are failing themselves collectively indeed.

[Jacaylbaro]

into “western Somaliland” from the long coastal line Somalia shares with Yemen

As confused as a heavyweight Biaaaaaatchhhhhh ! !

 

 

Stuff & Nonsense ....