by Ahmed Raghe Hassan
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
I was stunned to read ambassador Berhanu Kebede´s article entitled “Somalia asked us to save them from this brutal sub-clan,” Hiiraan, May 3, 2007. The ambassador mentioned a specific sub-clan in Somalia “Ayr” and blamed it for the troubles of war-torn Somalia. I quote “the main perpetrator of the humanitarian crisis that we have witnessed over Mogadishu is the Ayr-insurgent alliance, not the Ethiopian military.”
These remarks are misleading, surprisingly undiplomatic and very pedestrian. It is sad that a top profile career diplomat serving in the UK, should err and blunder this way. Our good ambassador here reflects what kind of a government he represents. In his futile attempts to cover the Addis Ababa political bungling, lapses and war crimes, he portrays himself as a common man on the street and abandons all diplomatic etiquette. Has The Ayr sub-clan butchered the nearly 2000 deaths in Mogadishu in the space of one week, one wonders!
To tell the world, that land locked-Ethiopia has occupied Somalia just to save the Somali nation of ten million, from a very small sub-clan is tantamount to an insult to the human intelligence! Yet Ambassador kebede is here to insist that his country is risking the lives of thousands of its troops in Somalia, in a generous endeavours to save ten million Somalis from a few clans men called Ayr.
Needless to say, that access to the Indian Ocean is the real motive behind the Ethiopian adventure in Somalia. This may come through a peaceful mutual co-operation, rather than the barrel of the gun. . Mr: Kebede is better to tell his bosses in Addis to mind Ethiopian business and let Somalia resolve her problem. Setting one clan in Somalia against another is a very old Abyssinian technique and Kebede is just doing that. No single clan can be blamed for the tragedy and doom that engulfed Somalia.
Meles Zenawi wants a free and independent sea port in Somalia at the expense of Somalia interests, see the above map which is self-explaining. This was the stickiest point between the tigrey jaunt and the defunct Arte Government led by Abdiqassim Salat in 2002, when the latter strived to forge a deal with Addis Ababa. Zenawi threatened he will flex his muscles to get what he wants, than engage in diplomacy and regional co-operation negotiations.
Ahmed Raghe Hassan
E-mail: [email protected]