Ethiopia: A Thorn to Somali Peace

[BiLaaL]

Ethiopia: A Thorn to Somali Peace

 

It is said that to err is human, but to forgive is divine. But when that forgiveness is between two nations, and not between two individual human beings, then we begin to enter the realms of impossibility. However prior to forgiving, one must feel that justice, a word seldom heard of in today’s world conflicts, has first taken place and that there was a resolution to whatever the conflict was over. Ethiopia, formerly called Abyssinia, is one of the most ancient countries in Africa, but when it comes to the History of the Somali people and country it has been one of our greatest foes. From the time of Ahmad Gurey to the present time, it seems that Ethiopia cannot accept nor respect Somalia’s territorial integrity. Somalia occupies the eastern 'horn' of Africa, the largest, single homogeneous area in the continent.

 

Our country has unfortunately been the playground of international politics for many years. It was with this territorial dispute that Somalia and Ethiopia fought two wars over. However, it has to be acknowledged, that this was a problem mainly caused by the partition as co-ordinated by the colonial powers, with no regard for territorial boundaries of nations. Yet another loathsome legacy of European colonisation, they brought with them to the continent the tools of injustice, and left the same way they came, with no regard for the sovereignty of nations. All across Africa, it is easy to see how colonial powers came, raped and abandoned the person whom they raped and humiliated, abandoning them without love, abandoning them without even listening to their narratives, or being interested in their future. A neo-colonial subject is such that it is born into uncertainty, lives in uncertainty, dies in uncertainty and operates on the frontiers of uncertainty. A neo-colonial subject is basically a person who is told, ‘You are not who you are’, nor do you belong to where you think you do. It is indeed ironic that it is they, who are today lecturing us on justice, the right to self-determination and oh yes the oddly phrased ‘human rights’.

 

European partitioning aside, Ethiopia has acted injustly by accepting and as history showed, sometimes insisting that the partition drawn by the Europeans was the correct one. By immorally taking this land, Ethiopia continues to rule a land whose inhabitants are Somali with nothing in common with the other communities under the Ethiopian governments rule. This very fact, was echoed by President Sharmarke in Mogadishu, in January 1962:

 

“Our misfortune is that our neighboring countries, with whom, like the rest of Africa, we seek to promote constructive and harmonious relations, are not our neighbors. Our neighbors are our Somali kinsmen whose citizenship has been falsified by indiscriminate boundary 'arrangements'. They have to move across artificial frontiers to their pasturelands. They occupy the same terrain and pursue the same pastoral economy as ourselves. We speak the same language. We share the same creed, the same culture and the same traditions. How can we regard our brothers as foreigners?”

 

The above address was given at a time when Somalia was a nation with a government that had the interests of its people at heart and with all nations in Africa was trying to adjust to life post-colonialism. Despite this Ethiopia had no ears for the complaints of the Somali government, which was what led to the war mentioned above. Fast forward to the year 2004 and things haven’t changed much at all. If anything Ethiopia is today taking advantage of our miserable state and further dividing our nation. The Somali people in areas occupied areas continue to demand their independence, but Addis Ababa meets these demands with heavy-handedness.

 

It continues to violate human rights laws with appalling regularity, by arresting any man they suspect of belonging to the guerrilla organisations, torturing them and raping their women. In addition to the parts they occupy, Ethiopia continues to support the warlords which continue to deny the Somali people the peace they crave for. So far those wishing for peace in Somalia have been concentrating their efforts on first creating the peace needed for us to get back on our feet. Perhaps then turning our attention to freeing our fellow Somali’s in occupied areas. This is definitely the best way to go, for no one can hope for a greater Somalia, without rebuilding the small fractured part that is still in our hands. But Ethiopia seems bent on denying us even that part, by continuing to interefere in Somalia’s internal affairs.

 

Somalia is today being watched by an international community, that seems to have eyes, that see not, and have ears, that hear not, unless of course the cries are coming from an area of interest. The future can only be judeged by the past, therefore we must ask ourselves the question, what has been the conduct of the Ethiopian government for the last fourteen years, especially the current one led by Meles Zenawi. It seems that the power hungry warlords and Zenawi have joined together to become formidable forces that are determined to hold the wishes of the Somali people at bay for as long as they can. And as long as we keep on quarrelling amongst ourselves, it appears that they will have their way.

 

For those of you who are questioning the amount of correspondence between Zenawi and the warlords, then there is plenty of evidence. Mr Issa from the Somali SBS service (in Australia), on the 24th December interviewed a former minister from the breakaway republic of Puntland. This minister now resides in Europe. When Issa asked the question of where Puntland gets its Arms from, the minister answered that, since it couldn’t be from the Arab states because of the fact that most of them don’t support nor recognise the so called ‘breakaway republics’, then logic dictates that it could only be from, well you know who. In fact Zenawi himself never makes any attempts to hide this, he knows well that the moment peace returns to the country, then accountability begins as to border issues.

 

Former President Daniel Arab Moi of Kenya, speaking at the American Defence University in Washington DC, was quoted as saying that one of the drawbacks to the Somali peace process was the regional suspicion that a united Somalia might pursue as he put it, its “expansionist dreams”. It seems that even Moi, who was long seen as impartial, has fears that a re-united Somali might and rightfully will, one hopes, resurrect its early territorial claims.

 

Nurudding Farah, a famous Somali novelist describes modern Somalia as “a nation with a split personality” at war really with itself, exploding with ancient hatreds and modern feuds. Farah places responsibility for Somalia's plight on Somalian's themselves: "If you take the Somali nation as a family, the betrayal is no longer that of colonialism, it is no longer from outside, but from within. And the cure must also be found from within."

 

The “split personality” that modern Somalis suffer from is that of desiring unity, but not tendering the necessary patience and sacrifice, to achieve that unity. Unity once achieved is a wonderful thing, it can be a platform on which to realise our dreams and take our rightful place in the League of Nations, but unity does not come effortlessly. Disunity on the other hand, is the devil’s playground. Disunity is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor never his victim, whose pain is magnified the more we disunite. It is the worst nightmare of the political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, and the homeless refugees. Trekking further on the path of disunity, is to choose not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope, effectively exiling them from human memory. An Indian proverb reads “the cries’ of another’s child becomes a headache; however the cry of your own child becomes a heartache”.