Somalia: The need to brake an escalating situation

[Juje]

Somalia: The need to brake an escalating situation

Written by DO

Aug 28, 2007 at 03:55 PM

When Ethiopian troops defeated Somalia's Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in Mogadishu last December and January, it looked like a cakewalk. But since then the armed opposition to Ethiopia's presence in Somalia - and to their Somali allies - has grown. In April 2007, Mogadishu was hit by the heaviest fighting in fifteen years.

 

 

Getting reliable information from Somalia is difficult and dangerous. But a clear pattern has emerged of serious violations, including indiscriminate use of heavy weapons in densely populated civilian areas and obstruction of humanitarian assistance to displaced, injured and vulnerable civilians.

 

Since fighting dramatically escalated at the end of March, hundreds of civilians have been killed and at least 300,000 displaced, according to United Nations estimates. Many of those forced to flee are living in desperate circumstances without sufficient food, water, shelter or medical supplies, easy prey to extortion and abuse by the warring parties.

 

Such a dramatic situation needs to be denounced by the African Union (AU). The ‘‘Irakisation process’’ of Somalia constitutes a real treath to the Eastern Africa region and to the African continent at large. More than a duty, there is a moral obligation for African to address this escalating situation.

 

Abuses have been perpetrated by all sides in this complex situation: Ethiopian forces, Ethiopia's Somali allies in the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), and those resisting the Ethiopian intervention, including militias loyal to the ****** clan and groups aligned to the ICU.

 

As tension is getting more and more dangerous, arbitrary detentions and unlawful renditions of individuals of interest has became the order of the day. With Kenyan cooperation, Ethiopia has rounded up scores of "terrorism suspects" who fled the initial Ethiopian intervention in Somalia in December 2006-January 2007.

 

The current western-backed Ethiopian approach to Somalia will lead to a mountain of civilian deaths and a litany of abuses. This policy risk precipitated to exactly the sort of human rights disaster in Somalia as the one the West rightly condemns in Darfur. This approach will only strengthen the hand of the extremist minority in Somalia, handing al-Qaida another potential theatre of militant action, and another opportunity to present themselves internationally as defenders of Islam against western aggression.

 

Washington, London and Brussels are in a blind alley in Somalia. They should rethink a policy which is encouraging serious abuses, and come up with one which prioritises the protection of civilians. They should start by issuing a clear call to all sides in this conflict to observe and uphold the rules of war and human rights standards. In such a context, Africa has indeed a role to play by finding a third way that can really salvage Somalia.

 

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