Somalia's forgotten victims of America's 'war on terror'

[Juje]

Somalia's forgotten victims of America's 'war on terror'

Andreas Rologas

January 7, 2008

WHO doesn't know about the 2 million Iraqi refugees huddled in the streets of Damascus or Amman? Or the other 2 million internally displaced Iraqis forced to seek sanctuary within Iraq? Yet who knows the number of displaced people being added to the "war on terror's" bitter harvest in Somalia?

Somalia, unlike Afghanistan, is not just another forgotten war; Somalia is an invisible war. It has become a war that, for large parts of the world, doesn't even exist.

 

Since the "war on terror" disembarked on the shores of Somalia, the capital Mogadishu has not seen a day's peace. Thousands of civilians have been killed as the United States-backed Government and the Ethiopian military battle the deposed Council of Islamic Courts and its allies.

 

Somalia's recent descent into violence began when the CIC, backed by small businessmen, traders and merchants — and, according to their enemies, Eritrea and al-Qaeda — set out to return order to Mogadishu by challenging the various warlords who for more than a decade have terrorised the population of Mogadishu and surrounds.

 

By mid-February 2006 the usually quarrelsome warlords became so worried by this challenge to their anarchic order that they formed a united front. The warlords — ever attuned to Washington's antennas — denounced the CIC as merely an al-Qaeda shop window, giving sanctuary to wanted al-Qaeda militants — a charge consistently denied by the CIC leadership. It was, as the warlords well knew, all Washington needed to hear to start shovelling arms in their direction.

 

And so the misery began.

 

Yet, despite American and Ethiopian arms, the warlords couldn't defeat their foes as most of the population had long ago sided with the CIC. So, on June 5, 2006, the CIC took complete control of the capital. They quickly brought a level of peace and security not seen for decades.

 

They also tried reassuring the Europeans and Americans that they were not out to build an Islamic state, while some of its more zealous elements passed their time by trying to clamp down on supposed Western vices such as music and cinema. Washington had received a bloody nose, yet the Americans weren't done yet. The relative peace was to be short-lived.

 

The embers had barely begun to die down in the capital when Ethiopian troops and tanks began conducting "incursions" into Somalia to support the Transitional Federal Government stationed in Baidoa. The TFG, which was set up in 2004 under UN tutelage, had always been weak and since its creation marginalised by the warlords.

 

The hardliners within the CIC responded to these provocations by threatening a military "jihad" against Ethiopia if the troops didn't leave. By late October the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, was announcing that his country was "technically at war" with the CIC.

 

The inevitable would come to pass, on Christmas Eve 2006. US-backed Ethiopian troops launched their own "pre-emptive" strike in the name of the "war on terror" into southern Somalia. The objective: to parachute the TFG, littered with many of the previously defeated warlords, into Mogadishu to replace the CIC.

 

In the face of overwhelming firepower the Islamists, encouraged by allied clans, retreated without much of a fight. By early January, Mogadishu would fall to the Ethiopian military.

 

A few days later the American hand in the invasion became overt when an AC130 gunship blasted some supposed "al-Qaeda militants" fleeing the capital. Witnesses would later relate that perhaps 70 or so nomads were blown away instead. No comprehensive investigation has ever been set up to ascertain the truth.

 

Mission accomplished?

 

Towards the end of January last year, a triumphant Zenawi announced the removal of 200 troops from Somalia as the first part of a complete withdrawal. This would be his equivalent of George Bush's "mission accomplished" moment over Iraq. By April 2007, an Iraq-style insurgency was well under way. Ethiopia, rather than reducing its troop presence, has increased it.

 

It is believed that during the April fighting more than 200,000 people fled Mogadishu alone. Many thousands more have since joined them as attacks against the Ethiopian military and the TFG increased.

 

According to a report from the UNHCR in November, "60% of the population, or some 600,000 people, are believed to have fled from the lawless Somali capital, Mogadishu, since February". The "war on terror" has become one of the biggest instruments for displacing people in the world today, yet the emptying of 60% of the population of Mogadishu has barely registered outside Africa.

 

Condoleezza Rice, on a recent visit to Ethiopia, reportedly called for a "ceasefire agreement". So after encouraging the invasion and actively arming the disgraced warlords, the US now seeks to broker peace. But the US will only talk to "moderates".

 

In a recent interview with Der Spiegel, the chairman of the Islamic courts, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed — who is considered a moderate — was asked why he doesn't call a ceasefire: "I'm powerless to do that. The popular uprising against the hated Ethiopian occupation troops — which every Somali patriot must see as his enemies — can't be stopped."

 

The occupation, by Somalia's long-time adversary Ethiopia, has heralded predictable results. It has created thousands of orphans, hundreds of thousands of refugees, and only increased the misery of this blighted land. The "international community" must call for a complete withdrawal of Ethiopian troops, followed by encouraging negotiations between the TFG, the clans of the south and the CIC.

 

The world is not listening to Somalia's screams under the boot of the war on terror, or if it is, does not seem to care.

 

SOURCE: The age, January 06, 2008