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Part Two
by Buri M. Hamza
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Introduction
In Part One of my assessment of the impacts of Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia, I tried to lay out for our readers what I saw as a threat that a nation and its people confront: a gradual breakdown of a society that has failed to be at peace with itself, and that has turned itself into an easy prey to its regional predators and to the Bush administration reckless military adventurism. In the assessment, I have shed some light on the humanitarian catastrophe engendered as a result of the enemy’s indiscriminate shelling and bombardment of the densely populated neighborhoods of the capital city of Somalia, and the mayhem that it continues to cause in other parts of Somalia.
I then went on to assess the environmental impacts of this invasion and called for an informed discussion and debate on Ethiopia’s obsession of Somalia’s lucrative economic and strategic assets. My argument, simply stated, was that given the obscene poverty that is extremely ubiquitous throughout Ethiopia and the global food and energy crises that are now looming and that can have a devastating effect on a nation that is prone to starvation and famine, the Ethiopian government will be strapped for cash. As a result of this, Meles Zenawi and his surrogates will be under intense pressure to lay out a well-structured predatory plan that will generate revenue out of the Somali resource wealth to sustain Ethiopia’s occupation of Somalia.
In Part Two, I will endeavour to further assess the impacts of Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia. I will initially re-assert that the situation in Somalia continues to deteriorate, and that the crimes perpetrated by the Ethiopian troops and the “Transitional Federal Government” forces have in fact drawn global outrage, which ostensibly stopped short of evoking the new international norm: the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) . I will also further emphasize the need for more informed discussion on Ethiopia’s predatory strategies of Somalia’s resources.
I will conclude Part Two of my assessment with a message to the people of Ethiopia – victims of a repressive regime that is deliberately fomenting hatred and animosity between the peoples of Somalia and Ethiopia.
I hope to dwell in Part Three of my assessment – hopefully won’t take too long to appear – on a message to my fellow Somali nationals: victims of clan prejudices and chauvinism, which are manipulated by selfish clan elites to promote their own particularistic motives.
The Massacre Continues and the World is Mum
The massacre of the Somali civilians continues unabated. Amnesty International has recently confirmed that Ethiopian troops and forces of the “Transitional Federal Government” have attacked and killed civilians inside a mosque in Mogadishu. Some have died “after their throats were cut, a form of extra-judicial execution practiced by the Ethiopian occupying forces. Victims are often left lying in pools of blood in the street until armed fighters including snipers, move out of the area and the relatives can collect their bodies. Some of the victims had their testicles cut off. In one incident, a newly-wed Somali woman whose husband was not at home was raped by over twenty Ethiopian soldiers.”
Despite these heinous atrocities which continue to debilitate, maim and displace hundreds of thousands of Somalis, the despot Meles Zenawi unashamedly claims that his forces are in Somalia in order to protect an “internationally-recognized Transitional Federal Government.” By claiming that he is there to protect a “government” that is literally dysfunctional and that is incapable of controlling Mogadishu, let alone the rest of the country, the despot is recklessly dishonest. His open-ended and indefinite engagement has to have its strategic dividends for his regime, for it is strategically idiotic from his part to deploy thousands of Ethiopian troops to allegedly protect a “government” that has failed to deliver and that has stripped itself of the modicum of empathy that it had initially enjoyed from its supporters. The very few supporters that still rant for this “government” are beginning to dissociate themselves from the dismal reality of a failing process. These supporters, despite the whimsical flip flopping of some of them, are also beginning – albeit belatedly – to become apprehensive of Meles Zenawi’s ominous plans that are boding evils for their Somali brothers and sisters.
The despot’s insistence that Somalis are imbued with an “oversupply of sub-sub- clannish attitude devoid of any national sentiments” is nothing but a desperate attempt from his part to demonize and belittle Somali culture and its homogenous identity. And it is also intended to overcompensate for the history of deep ethnic, linguistic and religious divisions that have plagued Ethiopia. But his bid to convert a homogenous nation coercively into “clan enclaves” or “clan-based building blocks” would not be unrealistic if Somalis continued to strip themselves of their national sentiments and embrace clannish stupidity in return for some cheap particularistic motives.
The myopic clan-based delineation of support or repudiation of Ethiopia’s presence in Somalia, which is tangibly palpable among certain groups inside the country and in the diaspora, has indeed fed into Meles Zenawi’s argument that Somalis are clannish and incapable of governing themselves. Those who still foolishly cling to clan loyalties, in complete disregard of the risks involved in such a turning point in the history of Somalia, are indeed rendering a disservice to the Somali national cause. In the midst of Ethiopia’s infringement of the Somali sovereignty and territorial integrity, nurturing clan interests and particularistic objectives would only weaken Somali people’s opposition to Meles Zenawi’s hegemonic aspirations and enhance the evil strategies of the puppets and pawns that are employed by the occupying forces and their surrogates as loyal proxies or clients.
Switching back to the issue of the massacre perpetrated by the Ethiopian troops and the “TFG” forces, Daniela Kroslak and Andrew Stroehlein of the International Crisis Group (ICG), in their recent report entitled “Oh My Gosh, Pirates!,” said:
Strange how an African country can be moving from prolonged chaos to violent collapse and no one in the world notices until a couple of European boats get seized by armed gunmen. Despite the fact that Somalia is in the worst shape it has been in for years, neither of the two resolutions currently in preparation at the UN Security Council mention the 85 dead in Mogadishu last weekend, or the exodus of newly displaced persons from that city, or Ethiopian shelling of civilian areas or the dwindling international humanitarian response. Instead, one of the resolutions proposed by France, the United States and Britain is a reaction to the hijacking of a French yacht and a Spanish fishing vessel, and would authorize countries to fight piracy off Somalia's coast. It is like watching flames engulf your neighbor's house and calling in the fire brigade to help you wash your car.
What the ICG senior staff members suggest here is the ostensible insouciance and lack of concern from the international community with regard to the Somali people’s tragedy and the growing humanitarian crisis. What they indicate is that nobody really cares about the crimes that are perpetrated by the Ethiopian troops. Nobody gives a damn to the hundreds of thousands that are made destitute as a result of these crimes. International community’s failure to seriously engage in salvaging the beleaguered children, women and elderly is literally a “slap in the face” to the very principles of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).
The “R2P” – spearheaded by the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan – is based on the premise that the international community has a responsibility to intervene in humanitarian catastrophes to protect innocent civilians and other vulnerable groups. What we have, nonetheless, witnessed is international community’s utter reluctance to comply with the provisions of this international doctrine and respond to the Somali humanitarian tragedy and human rights violations. Besides, the African Union’s Constitutive Act – similar to the “R2P” – acknowledges that the “state has the principle responsibility for protecting its citizens. If a state fails to live up to these commitments, the AU has a right to intervene for human protection purposes through multilateral military force.” After more than one year of Ethiopia’s brutal occupation of Somalia, the AU has deployed a few Ugandan and Burundi peacekeeping forces only to allow for the Ethiopian troops to prolong their occupation and consequently create the conditions that are favorable for the execution of their ominously dangerous plans.
But at the time of the writing of this assessment – May 2008 – the UN Security Council, in its resolution 1814 (2008) adopted at its 5893rd meeting on 15 May 2008, expressed, inter-alia, “deep concern at the worsening humanitarian situation in Somalia and determined that the situation continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security in the region.” The resolution requests the Secretary General to “continue his contingency planning for the possible deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Somalia to succeed AMISOM.” This resolution does in fact acknowledge that Somalia is now worse off than how it was before Ethiopia’s invasion, despite the fact that it stops short of calling for the immediate deployment of UN peacekeeping forces to succeed AMISOM and replace the brutal occupying forces of the despot Meles Zenawi.
Ethiopia’s Predatory Strategies
A well-structured predatory strategy with the view to amassing Somali resource wealth appears now to be a sine qua non for the occupying forces. As I have previously argued, the presence of large numbers of Ethiopian occupying troops in Somalia will continue to have a far-reaching impact on the economy of Ethiopia. The people of Ethiopia are wrestling – on a daily-basis – with one fundamental question: survival and how to make ends meet. And in the midst of the soaring energy prices, and the exploding food prices in a country that is still haunted by the spectre of famine and starvation that had previously devastated its people, the despot Meles Zenawi would certainly be concerned about the looming risks of violent protests and food riots and their potentially destabilizing effects on his regime.
Moreover, it is unlikely that the lame duck Bush administration would continue to foot the bill and replenish the empty coffers of Meles Zenawi’s regime. The United States’ economy is in shambles – the gas prices are spiraling out of control, the mortgage mess is having its toll on the households, and the food prices are skyrocketing. The administration is under intense scrutiny because of its failed policies and its reckless military adventurism. Anger, frustration, and despair over President Bush foreign policy blunders are sweeping the entire spectrum of the American society at the time when the nation is bracing for a decisive victory for the Democratic Party in the impending presidential election.
Against the backdrop of these realities, Meles Zenawi will have no choice but to resort to what we can now term as “predation of Somali resource wealth and strategic assets” in order to generate the resources needed for the prolongation of his occupation, and for the implementation of his sinister and evil motives. Meles Zenawi has already laid claim to what he considers to be “Ethiopia’s historical and inalienable rights of the ownership of Somalia’s 3000-Km long coast on the Indian Ocean.” For the Ethiopians, conquering this important strategic asset is vital for their government’s regional political and economic clout. The loss of Eritrea was a devastating blow for land-locked Ethiopia. It has deprived her of all the prosperity of land-locked Ethiopia.
Ethiopia’s predatory strategies and its ruthlessly aggressive policy of inducing a demographic change in Somalia are therefore proceeding as planned. Sadly, this reality keeps on falling on deaf ears. Somalis are so burdened with their myopic vision. Their lack of compassion for nationalism is compromising their nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Hiiraan Online’s narration of “the diverse views on the nature, the scope, and effect of Ethiopia’s involvement in the Somali conflict” fell short of weighing in the clan factor and its role in bolstering or weakening this involvement. Hiiraan Online must, however, be commended for providing a balanced analysis on the diverse views surrounding the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia.
Conclusion: My Message to the People of Ethiopia
Meles Zenawi’s invasion of Somalia has drawn your country deeper into an intractable debacle. Because of this invasion, thousands of innocent Somalis and thousands of Ethiopian troops have been killed. Hundreds of thousands of Somali innocent women, children and elderly have been internally displaced because of your troops’ indiscriminate shelling and bombardment of the densely populated neighborhoods of the capital city of Somalia. Human rights abuses perpetrated by your troops in collusion with the forces of the “Transitional Federal Government” have been acknowledged by the United Nations and Amnesty International.
Your troops’ prolonged war with the Somali resistance movements will never weaken Somali people’s determination to die for the sake of their nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Your troops’ prolonged presence on the Somali soil will eventually create divisions inside Ethiopia proper. Ethiopia cannot remain unscathed while Somali women, children and elderly continue to succumb to torture, killing and rapes. There is a mounting fear that the protracted fighting now witnessed in Mogadishu, which is staged by the national resistance movements against the invaders, may eventually engulf the entire Horn of Africa. Your troops are already engaged in fierce battles with freedom fighters in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has recently escalated its attacks on the Ethiopian government troops, and as a result of this, Ethiopian troops are burning villages, raping women, and killing civilians in the Ogaden region.
Your government’s flawed and irrational military adventurism – a move recklessly staged by Meles Zenawi to mollify the hawkish Bush administration – will bring about destabilization in your country, and engender a devastating humanitarian crisis and a wave of refugee displacements. Can you, therefore, continue to remain silent and mum while your troops are engaged in exterminating your fellow Africans in the Horn?
We urge you to peacefully resent to Meles Zenawi’s reckless adventurism. Meles Zenawi and his government must be held accountable for the killings of Somalis and Ethiopians alike, and consequently for the deteriorating relation between the two peoples. By making all Somalis feel they are terrorists or supporters of terrorists, Meles Zenawi created enemies for himself and for the people of Ethiopia. The international criminal justice system has brought to trial two of the great perpetrators of violence against civilians, Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic and Liberia’s Charles Taylor, and issued indictment against Uganda’s Joseph Kony of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Meles Zenawi must also be brought to trial by international criminal justice system and must be indicted for the indiscriminate massacre of both Ethiopians and Somalis.
Buri M. Hamza
E-mail: [email protected]