This is the Ethiopia they prostrate for.........

[Som@li]

TFG and ICU ayaa ku dagaalamay Somalia, Ithey refused to negotiate,ICU had the upper hand while TFG was week,and was cornered in Baidoa,TFG had outside support, and invited Ethiopians, as anybody in danger would,at the same time Eritea was supporting and sendig weapons to ICU, it was a war, and ICU was defeated, markaa niman yahow dhareerka iska duwa,Cabaadkana joojiya. The Game is Over

 

Ps, I neither liked the TFG nor ICU tactics, but i see a CLEAR winner now, which may bring hope to millions of Somalis, first time in 16 years!

[Fabregas]

Originally posted by Dabshid:

TFG and ICU ayaa ku dagaalamay Somalia, Ithey refused to negotiate,ICU had the upper hand while TFG was week,and was cornered in Baidoa,TFG had outside support, and invited Ethiopians, as anybody in danger would,at the same time Eritea was supporting and sendig weapons to ICU, it was a war, and ICU was defeated, markaa niman yahow dhareerka iska duwa,Cabaadkana joojiya. The Game is Over

 

Ps, I neither liked the TFG nor ICU tactics, but i see a CLEAR winner now, which may bring hope to millions of Somalis, first time in 16 years!

Saxiib, I hope you know who sponsored the men that made Somalia a failed state for the last sixteen years?One wonders how the same men who have transported nearly a quarter of Muqdisho residents to jail can bring to the Somali people.

[Juje]

Originally posted by Dabshid:

Ps, I neither liked the TFG nor ICU tactics, but i see a CLEAR winner now, which may bring hope to millions of Somalis, first time in 16 years!

If you dont like them in the first place , how do you envisage them (TFG) being a hope for 'millions' of Somalis?

Saladu saxiib halke bey iska qabsan la'dahey?

[Fabregas]

Originally posted by Castro:

quote:Originally posted by N/AA:

Kashafa, the ICU is the cause of Ethiopia occupying Somalia.

Ethiopia already occupied(indirectly) Somalia for the last sixteen years through the use of Warlords.......But Alxamdulilah their backs have been broken by the Somali people and those that support them will inshallahu follow their path....

[Gabbal]

Originally posted by nuune:

^^^ Isma laheen Horn baa afkiisa waxaas ay ka soo qubanayaan, ICU ayaa sabab u ah aa, Innaa Lillaahi.

 

 

Adduunya wareersan oon war la isku heenin talaw yaa u warrama warmoogayaasha!

Nuunow, adiguba dagaalki Bu'aale] buug ayaad gashay. Aan isu ceeb qarino ayaan oran lahaa!

[NGONGE]

Heh. I see Khashafa is busting yet another blood vessel! Could this be termed a tantrum?

 

Bas, adeer, bas..xuuxii xabashiga wan dilnay..bas, adeer, bas

 

On a serious note, I don’t see how this thread is allowed to stay. It serves no purpose and only aims to provoke.

[Allamagan]

^ I do remember his work and effort to justify these barbaric actions commited by UIC's Buaale stooges.

[xiinfaniin]

 

June 18, 2007

In Ethiopia, Fear and Cries of Army Brutality

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

IN THE ****** DESERT, Ethiopia — The rebels march 300 strong across the crunchy earth, young men with dreadlocks and AK-47s slung over their shoulders.

 

 

Often when they pass through a village, the entire village lines up, one sunken cheekbone to the next, to squint at them.

 

“May God bring you victory,” one woman whispered.

 

This is the ******, a spindle-legged corner of Ethiopia that the urbane officials in Addis Ababa, the capital, would rather outsiders never see. It is the epicenter of a separatist war pitting impoverished nomads against one of the biggest armies in Africa.

 

What goes on here seems to be starkly different from the carefully constructed up-and-coming image that Ethiopia — a country that the United States increasingly relies on to fight militant Islam in the Horn of Africa — tries to project.

 

In village after village, people said they had been brutalized by government troops. They described a widespread and longstanding reign of terror, with Ethiopian soldiers gang-raping women, burning down huts and killing civilians at will.

 

It is the same military that the American government helps train and equip — and provides with prized intelligence. The two nations have been allies for years, but recently they have grown especially close, teaming up last winter to oust an Islamic movement that controlled much of Somalia and rid the region of a potential terrorist threat.

 

The Bush administration, particularly the military, considers Ethiopia its best bet in the volatile Horn — which, with Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea, is fast becoming intensely violent, virulently anti-American and an incubator for terrorism.

 

But an emerging concern for American officials is the way that the Ethiopian military operates inside its own borders, especially in war zones like the ******.

 

Anab, a 40-year-old camel herder who was too frightened, like many others, to give her last name, said soldiers took her to a police station, put her in a cell and twisted her nipples with pliers. She said government security forces routinely rounded up young women under the pretext that they were rebel supporters so they could bring them to jail and rape them.

 

“Me, I am old,” she said, “but they raped me, too.”

 

Moualin, a rheumy-eyed elder, said Ethiopian troops stormed his village, Sasabene, in January looking for rebels and burned much of it down. “They hit us in the face with the hardest part of their guns,” he said.

 

The villagers said the abuses had intensified since April, when the rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil field, killing nine Chinese workers and more than 60 Ethiopian soldiers and employees. The Ethiopian government has vowed to crush the rebels but rejects all claims that it abuses civilians.

 

“Our soldiers are not allowed to do these kinds of things,” said Nur Abdi Mohammed, a government spokesman. “This is only propaganda and cannot be justified. If a government soldier did this type of thing they would be brought before the courts.”

 

Even so, the State Department, the European Parliament and many human rights groups, mostly outside Ethiopia, have cited thousands of cases of torture, arbitrary detention and extrajudicial killings — enough to raise questions in Congress about American support of the Ethiopian government.

 

“This is a country that is abusing its own people and has no respect for democracy,” said Representative Donald M. Payne, Democrat of New Jersey and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa and global health.

 

“We’ve not only looked the other way but we’ve pushed them to intrude in other sovereign nations,” he added, referring to the satellite images and other strategic help the American military gave Ethiopia in December, when thousands of Ethiopian troops poured into Somalia and overthrew the Islamist leadership.

 

According to Georgette Gagnon, deputy director for the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, Ethiopia is one of the most repressive countries in Africa.

 

“What the Ethiopian security forces are doing,” she said, “may amount to crimes against humanity.”

 

Human Rights Watch issued a report in 2005 that documented a rampage by government troops against members of the Anuak, a minority tribe in western Ethiopia, in which soldiers ransacked homes, beat villagers to death with iron bars and in one case, according to a witness, tied up a prisoner and ran over him with a military truck.

 

After the report came out, the researcher who wrote it was banned by the Ethiopian government from returning to the country. Similarly, three New York Times journalists who visited the ****** to cover this story were imprisoned for five days and had all their equipment confiscated before being released without charges.

 

Ethiopia’s Tiananmen Square

 

In many ways, Ethiopia has a lot going for it these days: new buildings, new roads, low crime and a booming trade in cut flowers and coffee. It is the second most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa, behind Nigeria, with 77 million people.

 

Its leaders, many whom were once rebels themselves, from a neglected patch of northern Ethiopia, are widely known as some of the savviest officials on the continent. They had promised to let some air into a very stultified political system during the national elections of 2005, which were billed as a milestone on the road to democracy.

 

Instead, they turned into Ethiopia’s version of Tiananmen Square. With the opposition poised to win a record number of seats in Parliament, the government cracked down brutally, opening fire on demonstrators, rounding up tens of thousands of opposition supporters and students and leveling charges of treason and even attempted to kill top opposition leaders, including the man elected mayor of Addis Ababa.

 

Many opposition members are now in jail or in exile. The rest seem demoralized.

 

“There are no real steps toward democracy,” said Merera Gudina, vice president of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, a leading opposition party. “No real steps toward opening up space, no real steps toward ending repression.”

 

Ethiopian officials have routinely dismissed such complaints, accusing political protesters of stoking civil unrest and poking their finger into a well-known sore spot. Ethiopia has always had an authoritarian streak. This is a country, after all, where until the 1970s rulers claimed to be direct descendants of King Solomon. It is big, poor, famine-stricken, about half-Christian and half-Muslim, surrounded by hostile enemies and full of heavily armed separatist factions. As one high-ranking Ethiopian official put it, “This country has never been easy to rule.”

 

That has certainly been true for the ****** desert, a huge, dagger-shaped chunk of territory between the highlands of Ethiopia and the border of Somalia. The people here are mostly ethnic Somalis, and they have been chafing against Ethiopian rule since 1897, when the British ceded their claims to the area.

 

The colonial officials did not think the ****** was worth much. They saw thorny hills and thirsty people. Even today, it is still like that. What passes for a town is a huddle of bubble-shaped huts, the movable homes of camel-thwacking nomads who somehow survive out here. For roads, picture Tonka truck tracks running through a sandbox. The primary elements in this world are skin and bone and sun and rock. And guns. Loads of them.

 

Camel herders carry rifles to protect their animals. Young women carry pistols to protect their bodies. And then there is the ****** National Liberation Front, the machine-gun-toting rebels fighting for control of this desiccated wasteland.

 

Rebels Live Off the Land

 

Lion. Radio. Fearless. Peacock. Most of the men have nicknames that conceal their real identities. Peacock, who spoke some English, served as a guide. He shared the bitter little plums the soldiers pick from thorn bushes — “****** chocolate,” he called them. He showed the way to gently skim water from the top of a mud puddle to minimize the amount of dirt that ends up in your stomach — even in the rainy season this is all there is to drink.

 

He pointed out the anthills, the coming storm clouds, the especially ruthless thorn trees and even a graveyard that stood incongruously in the middle of the desert. The graves — crude pyramids of stones — were from the war in 1977-78, when Somalia tried, disastrously, to pry the ****** out of Ethiopia’s hands and lost thousands of men. “It’s up to us now,” Peacock said.

 

Peacock was typical of the rebels. He was driven by anger. He said Ethiopian soldiers hanged his mother, raped his sister and beat his father. “I know, it’s hard to believe,” he said. “But it’s true.”

 

He had the hunch of a broken man and a voice that seemed far too tired for his 28 years. “It’s not that I like living in the bush,” he said. “But I have nowhere else to go.”

 

The armed resistance began in 1994, after the ****** National Liberation Front, then a political organization, broached the idea of splitting off from Ethiopia. The central government responded by imprisoning ******i leaders, and according to academics and human rights groups, assassinating others. The ****** is part of the Somali National Regional State, one of nine ethnic-based states within Ethiopia’s unusual ethnic-based federal system. On paper, all states have the right to secede, if they follow the proper procedures. But it seemed that the government feared that if the Somalis broke away, so too would the Oromos, the Afar and many other ethnic groups pining for a country of their own.

 

The Ethiopian government calls the ****** rebels terrorists and says they are armed and trained by Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor and bitter enemy. One of the reasons Ethiopia decided to invade Somalia was to prevent the rebels from using it as a base.

 

The government blames them for a string of recent bombings and assassinations and says they often single out rival clan members. Ethiopian officials have been pressuring the State Department to add the ****** National Liberation Front to its list of designated foreign terrorist organizations. Until recently, American officials refused, saying the rebels had not threatened civilians or American interests.

 

“But after the oil field attack in April,” said one American official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “we are reassessing that.”

 

American policy toward Ethiopia seems to be in flux. Administration officials are trying to increase the amount of nonhumanitarian aid to Ethiopia to $481 million next year, from $284 million this year. But key Democrats in Congress, including Mr. Payne, are questioning this, saying that because of Ethiopia’s human rights record, it is time to stop writing the country a blank check.

 

In April, European Commission officials began investigating Ethiopia for war crimes in connection to hundreds of Somali civilians killed by Ethiopian troops during heavy fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital.

 

Women Are Suffering the Most

 

In the ******, it is not clear how many people are dying. The vast area is essentially a no-go zone for most human rights workers and journalists and where the Ethiopian military, by its own admission, is waging an intense counterinsurgency campaign.

 

The violence has been particularly acute against women, villagers said, and many have recently fled.

 

Asma, 19, who now lives in neighboring Somaliland, said she was stuck in an underground cell for more than six months last year, raped and tortured. “They beat me on the feet and breasts,” she said. She was freed only after her father paid the soldiers ransom, she said, though she did not know how much.

 

Ambaro, 25, now living in Addis Ababa, said she was gang-raped by five Ethiopian soldiers in January near the town of Fik. She said troops came to her village every night to pluck another young woman.

 

“I’m in pain now, all over my body,” she said. “ I’m worried that I’ll become crazy because of what happened.”

 

Many ****** villagers said that when they tried to bring up abuses with clan chiefs or local authorities, they were told it was better to keep quiet.

 

The rebels said thats was precisely why they attacked the Chinese oil field: to get publicity for their cause and the plight of their region (and to discourage foreign companies from exploiting local resources). According to them, they strike freely in the ****** all the time, ambushing military convoys and raiding police stations.

 

Mr. Mohammed, the government spokesman, denied that, saying the rebels “will not confront Ethiopian military forces because they are not well trained.”

 

Expert or not, they are determined. They march for hours powered by a few handfuls of rice. They travel extremely light, carrying only their guns, two clips of bullets, a grenade and a tarp. They brag about how many Ethiopians they have killed, and every piece of their camouflage, they say, is pulled off dead soldiers. They joke about slaughtering Ethiopian troops the same way they slaughter goats.

 

Their morale seems high, especially for men who sleep in the dirt every night. Their throats are constantly dry, but they like to sing.

 

“A camel is delivering a baby today and the milk of the camel is coming,” goes one campfire song. “Who is the owner of this land?”

 

Will Connors contributed reporting from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

[Khalaf]

Kashafow sxbow u know the saying an empty vessel makes the most noise, singing the same tune man for months on end gets boring. Mida kale you pay and give too much credit to other nomads views, nomads like Duke and Horn who know the complexities of somali politics much more then u man. It shows how little u know about Somalia from ur writings and your example of the little old lady, go to Minneapolis, or T.dot. sxb u aint gonna change anyone’s mind that would’ve occurred months ago, mida kale like I said it’s the same old tune nothing new u bring no new ideas namean. Ethiopia is committing crimes in Somali Galbeed the article points out, and not long ago Somalis were committing worse atrocities against other muslim Somalis. No excuse I certainly support our brothers in somali galbeed, but just pointing out the brutal truth on the ground, you know the reason why divisions occured. Aaah yes, I see the icu was the changing force, but I say a change that came a decade too late, as they say too little too late.

 

Anyway no need to blame Ethiopia, TFG........... everyone is tuug fighting for their interests, I think. And there are millions of Somalis, both aboard and back in Somalia all of them Muslimeen, the door is still open for the “Muqaawama” to provide an alternative to the somali ppl, u know a political alternative, a road map to unity and brotherhood not just car bombings and da like namean............so far its been a total failure don’t you think? Should we blame that too on Ethiopia, the somali ppl whom are still divided from Hergaysa to Kismaayo?

[Coloow]

Originally posted by NGONGE:

Heh. I see Khashafa is busting yet another blood vessel! Could this be termed a tantrum?

 

Bas, adeer, bas..xuuxii xabashiga wan dilnay..bas, adeer, bas

 

On a serious note, I don’t see how this thread is allowed to stay. It serves no purpose and only aims to provoke.

Are there threads that do not invoke on this section? I thought you were the spokesman for the right to invoke movement

[Coloow]

I can't stand the flawed logic of the appologists. Somalia has been in shambles for the last 16 years (for somaliland, almost 20). Who is to blame? I don't think the IUC as an aswer would score that much. Somalia has been dying because of the members of the TFG. The attrocities in Xamar today is partially committed by Ethiopians and their henchmen who happened to be warmongerers. As a matter of fact, Abdullahi Yusuf was the founding father of the culture of tribalism that our nation witnessed.

 

Maxamed Dheere, Abdi Qeybdid, Jeele and gacmodheer were the key players who created this mess. and guess what appologists, these nasty warlords are today called ministers, police commissioners and what have you.

 

When a thread such as this one on the occupation and its aftermath is posted, appologists are at hand blaming the IUC. This is an insult to our intelligence.

 

Even the global actors know the reason for the emergence of the IUC, what they have accomplished is never questioned.

Any sane human being would never support the thugs called the TFG. There is no moral ground to support them.

 

I guess when the marauders of today's muqdisho change their tone and engage in a massacre as they did in 1991, many on this forum will be on record cursing the TFG and praising the IUC. So, tribalistic is the stance many somalis take today. We are so shortsighted, overcome for the love of tribalism, freed from intellectual thinking capacity.

[me]

Thanx for the link Kashafa.

[Gordon Gekko]

As NGONGE and many others in this thread have mentioned, this thread lacks the prerequisites for a fruitful and comprehensive debate between the different political opponents of SOL. I also sense alot of oneliner 'conspiracy-oriented' comments revealing the posters obvious temptation to resort to amateurish, dead-end, fadhi-ku-dirir discussions. Not my cup of shaax really.

[Allamagan]

men in mask, too many of them here...

[xiinfaniin]

GG, really? You are not credible adeer. I mean I don’t believe you are abstaining to participate in this thread for the reasons you stated. NG was quite duplicitous too there.

 

Here is a great article on one of America's premier News paperes detailing Ethiopia’s brutalities in that region. It could be the case that most of the things maintioned were known to you, or to NG, before. But one would think the fact that American people are exposed to such a blatant cruelty funded by their admin should be good enough for one to share his/her take on it, and at least discuss the potential congressional oversight it could unravel on DoB’s spendings!