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In this paper, I show that the United States has imperialist objectives in Somalia to gain a total control over Somalia’s unexplored energy and other natural resources and as a geopolitical outpost in support of other US imperial projects in Africa and the Horn of Africa in particular. Thus, gaining control of Somalia is essential for US imperialistic design in Africa. This paper will examine how the US is using the UN and other international bodies such as the Security Council, African Union and EU in order to overcome local resistance to US colonial design in Somalia.
The US is currently using two different but closely linked strategies: a massive international lobby so to make the Ethiopia’s occupation of Somalia acceptable, albeit in the name of a supposedly preventing even greater “evil”: the potential return of Union of Islamic Court, the discursive blurring of the difference between mercenary soldiers and peacekeepers so that, the US can use international money and legal cover to finance and legitimate the current brutal Ethiopian occupation of Somalia.
Since masking the role the US played in Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia is no longer possible, the US is already working on plan B mode: justify the US/Ethiopian invasion as the lesser evil over the rule of Union of Islamic Courts. Thus, while officially, the US is going along with EU nations for calling the eventual Ethiopia’s pull out of Somalia to be replaced by African Union troops as peace keepers, in reality, this is a ruse. This is because, by backing the US sponsorship of Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia, the African Union (AU) is in clear violation of Security Council resolutions 1724, 1725 and 1744 and UN Charters.
This is so because even though Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia violates Somalia’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity,[1] the AU, USA and key EU member nations[i.e.UK] defended US/Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia, ironically to “protect” Ethiopia’s national sovereignty.[ 2] Consequently, AU forces currently in Somalia, as well as those who may arrive at a later date, by logical extension, are part of Ethiopia’s occupation forces and will remain to be so even if Ethiopia’s soldiers eventually leave.
If Ethiopian forces are to leave Somalia, it will be because local Somali resistance to colonial occupation of their land will drive them out rather than UN, or the US resolutions. Somalis know that they have the legal grounds and moral duty to resist the rape of their women and death and destruction of people in the hands of occupation Tigre forces and thuggish warlords. Salim Lone succinctly notes the immoral and illegal collusion between the UN, Security Council and AU in the Ethiopia/US illegal invasion of Somalia.
"This is the most lawless war of our generation. All wars of aggression lack legitimacy, but no conflict in recent memory has witnessed such mounting layers of illegality as the current one in
Somalia. Violations of the UN charter and of international humanitarian law are regrettably commonplace in our age, and they abound in the carnage that the world is allowing to unfold in
Mogadishu, but this war has in addition explicitly violated two UN security council resolutions. To complete the picture, one of these resolutions contravenes the charter itself".[3]
Thus, one of the reasons why the current US administration prefers a long term Ethiopian occupation of Somalia[4]is because the emotive imperialistic and geopolitical objectives in Somalia and wants Ethiopia to help the USA realize these goals. Hence, the Bush administration ordered the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia without securing AU peacekeepers in place after the initial invasion.
This is not an innocent oversight by the US administration of George W. Bush but a deliberate plan. Indeed, from the standpoint of the Bush administration, this has to be the case for the two simple reasons: there are not enough African nations willing to send their soldiers to act as mercenary force to prop up the warlords of the transitional government and the colonisation of another African nation by the USA. Second, the Bush administration does not want peacekeeping force in Somalia but paid and loyal mercenary army. This is because without the protection of foreign forces, US puppet warlord regime of TFG cannot last a day.
The numbers do not add up for a meaningful AU peace keeping forces in Somalia. Thus, what Bush administration wants now is to realize its original plan: turn the Ethiopian troops currently inside Somalia as an occupying army to a “peacekeeping” force. This is because six months into the Ethiopian occupation of Somalia, only 1600 hundred soldiers from Uganda have arrived in Somalia. In order to overcome this problem, the Bush administration is currently working on a thinly disguised strategy designed to carefully conflate concepts of occupation and peacekeeping in Somalia. In this way, by mix and blend much larger contingent of Ethiopian forces currently in Somalia with few thousand peacekeepers from AU nations, the Bush administration is hoping to turn the current illegal Ethiopia’s occupation of Somalia as legitimate and permanent.
The strategy is based, purely, on the geopolitical interests of the U.S. This policy objective is clear from the Bush administration’s opposition to Ethiopia’s troop withdrawal from Somalia.[5]
However, any hint that AU peacekeeping forces in Somalia are the same occupying Ethiopian troops, will, most certainly, secure the failure of AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia. In addition, this wrongheaded policy will lead to more violence and more bloodshed in Somalia. It is plainly clear to many of us that the Bush administration cannot impose on the Somali citizens the rule of ruthless thuggish warlords as US “friendly” puppet regime.
But as history of colonial and imperial domination and their eventual demises taught students of politics and history, imperialist conquests are guided not by reasonable policies but by greed and a lust for power. The current US (mis)-adventure in Somalia is not different from other misguided past imperial hubris.
The US and the African Union have warned Ethiopia not to withdraw its troops from Somalia before peacekeepers are deployed to replace them. AU commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare says it would be a "catastrophe" if Ethiopia pulled out too soon. US Africa envoy Jendayi Frazer said it would probably be several months before the full peacekeeping force arrived. Ethiopia's prime minister says he wants to withdraw all his troops, after they helped oust Islamists. Up to a third of the population fled recent fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, and badly need aid.[6]
It is clear from the current death and destruction taking place in occupied Somalia, it’s the very presence of the Ethiopian forces which will continue to fuel resentment and resistance of ordinary Somalis and the longer the Ethiopian forces stay the greater the resistance to the occupation of ordinary Somalia citizens will become.
Somalia's recent agonies are a direct consequence of the American-backed invasion by Ethiopia six months ago to topple Mogadishu's Islamic Courts Union and install the weak and Warlord dominated transitional federal government.[7]
But this is the strategy the Bush administration is planning to adopt toward Somalia with the full support of the international community. On 29 May 2007, Ethiopia foreign minister, Seum Mesfin, has revealed to the world Media in occupied Mogadishu that Ethiopian troops will remain in Somalia so that “Islamic elements will not disturb either the Somali government or the Somalia population.”[8]! How long the Ethiopia wishes to stay in Somalia is not clear. Indeed, this latest Ethiopian provocation spells both grave and good news for the people of Somalia. Grave news because it suggests there will be more bloodshed and more struggle ahead. It is good news because, since the Ethiopian forces will leave sooner or later, the warlords will go with the departing occupying army.
Now, the US imperialistic aims in the Ethiopia/US invasion and current occupation of Somalia is clear; pertinent question which need to be asked is whether other nations, such as Canada and EU member nations, which have pledged financial support for peacekeeping troops to Somalia,[9] are willing to be complicit in Bush administration’s cynically emotive scheming design at covertly and openly directing the future of Somalia.
Among other things, by actively curtailing the goals and the mandate of the peacekeeping forces in Somalia in ways which meets the U.S strategic objectives.[10] The Bush administration has shown its immense capacity to ignore international law, the UN, AU, EU norms, rules and conventions when these rules conflict with U.S. political or economic objectives. For example, right after Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia, in clear violation of UN arms embargo against Somalia, the Bush administration covertly helped Ethiopia to purchase new tanks and other military hardware from North Korea. These tanks and other weapons are currently used by the Tigre army of Meles Zinawi to kill, maim and terrorize the citizens of Somalia.[11]
Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of that country's nuclear test, officials in the Bush administration allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from Pyongyang in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior U.S. officials. The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopian troops were in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the U.S. policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.[12]
In addition to helping Ethiopia acquire illegally new weapons to kill and maim the people of Somalia, the Bush administration is counting on its newly installed, US friendly UN chief, Ban Ki-Moon, to put together, what Salime Lone aptly calls, the “coalition of the willing” to make the current Ethiopia/US occupation of Somalia legitimate and permanent. The dubious collusion between the UN and the Bush administration on Somalia’s future must be utterly rejected. Salim Lone stressed this point forcibly when he said the following: A huge campaign must be launched to press western governments to end this slaughter, which is almost entirely the work of those in control of the country.
The European Union warned a month ago that war crimes might have been committed in an assault on the capital last month - in which the EU could be complicit because of its large-scale support for those accused of the crimes. Human Rights Watch has documented how Kenya and Ethiopia had turned this region into Africa's own version of Guantánamo Bay, replete with kidnappings, extraordinary renditions, secret prisons and large numbers of "disappeared": a project that carries the Made in America label. Allowing free rein to such comprehensive lawlessness is a stain on all those who might have, at a minimum, curtailed it.[13]
Salim Lone also notes Ban Ki-Moon’s dubious role in the current disastrous situation in Somalia, which if not reversed immediately, could lead to even greater slaughter of the Somali people. Lone suggests that the UN must demand Ethiopia’s troop immediate withdrawal from Somalia, followed by the sponsorship of a genuine and transparent reconciliation process among various Somalia groups without interference from outside forces. But this is not happening because the Bush administration is in Somalia to colonize it. It is this context that Ben Ki-Moon’s deliberate silence of the current ruthless Meles Zinawi’s Tigre occupation of Somalia must be read and understood.
Work must begin to derail the astounding proposal from the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, which is to be discussed by the security council in mid-June. He would like to mount a UN-sanctioned "coalition of the willing" to enforce peace and restore order in Somalia - in other words, the UN would help Ethiopia and the United States achieve what their own illegal military interventions have failed to accomplish: the entrenchment of a client regime that lacks any popular support. Such an operation is unlikely to succeed in any event, but it could further threaten the turbulent Horn of Africa, which is already teetering on the brink of chaos.
The Somali government is busy crying "al-Qaida" at every turn and offering lucrative deals to oil companies, in a bid to entice greater western support. But this war was lost long ago. In turning to the Somalia’s arch enemy Ethiopia, the transitional government's fate was sealed: the nation will not abide an Ethiopian-US occupation. Only a political solution will resolve this crisis. Africa must step up to the plate and show spine and leadership in a drive to protect its civilians, and work with Europe and the UN to convince the US to swiftly terminate its latest destabilising adventure.[14]
For the Somalis around the world, and particularly those living under the brutal occupation of Zinawi’s Tigre army and the rule of Somalia’s thuggish warlords, the message is clear. Somalis must resist the occupation of foreign forces and the warlords in their land; many have paid with their blood for doing it. However, if the 6 June 2007 Communique issued by International Contact Group for Somalia is an indication of what is to come for the of Somali people, the country and its people are being effectively handed over to Meles Zinawi and the warlords. The Contact Group for Somalia, as a body not elected by the people of Somalia is partisan, bias in favour of the very occupation forces currently menacing and maiming the Somalia people.
For example, In a gesture suffused with dominating authority and condescending meanings, the host of this month’s crucial meeting of the Contact Group for Somalia, the British foreign Mister for Africa, Lord David Triesman, called Somalis currently resisting the occupation of their country, including those of us in Diaspora, ‘wreckers and spoilers of Peace.’[15]
In fact, the US member of the International Contact Group for Somalia, Jendayi Frazer, assistant US secretary of state for African affairs, went out of her way to blame the current death and destruction in Somalia by Zinawi and thuggish warlords of the TFG as Eritrea’s fault. MS Frazer claimed, among other baseless assertions, that Eritrea was harbouring "extremist elements" linked to violent Islamist groups. In fact, Ms Frazer seems to want to place the entire Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia and the concomitant death and destruction Zinawi’s Tigre army is currently wrecking in the country as Eritrea’s fault. There is no hint in Ms Frazer’s accusing tone that it is Meles Zinawi and the warlord regime of Yusuf and Gedi, and not Eritrea, which are stalking, maiming, raping, looting and humiliating the people of Somalia on daily basis.
On the other hand, despite widespread intimidations, maiming, arrests, closing down of media outlets in areas of Somalia under the control of the Ethiopian army and the Warlords of TFG, Ms Frazer continue to portray Ethiopia as an innocent victim of imaginary “wreckers and spoilers of peace” in Somalia such as Eritrea and the Somalia victims themselves are now being identified by Lord Triasman ad Ms Frazer, as aggressors, wreckers and spoilers of peace. This is classical spin tactic. Wonderfully for us, the international media does not have any trouble pointing the finger at who is responsible the current death and destruction in Somalia. Thus, in his recent Newsweek feature report, Disaster in Somalia, Ron Nordland, has called the US backed TFG regime of Yusuf and Gedi as comprising of “drug addled warlords.”
How bad is it in Somalia? Bad enough that people fleeing the capital have been reduced to renting trees for shelter. It's the sort of thing that happens when drug-addled warlords roam the countryside, imposing taxes of 50 percent on aid recipients. And the sort of thing to be expected of a government whose prime minister, Ali Mohamad Gedi, has publicly accused the United Nations agency feeding the country of spreading cholera along with food deliveries. And that's the internationally recognized government, which enjoys U.S. support, although it is widely unpopular in southern Somalia and the capital, Mogadishu.
That's not surprising, since the prime minister is from a clan that's hostile to the clan that dominates the capital, and the president, Abdulahi Yusuf, is from Puntland, in northern Somalia, a breakaway region that is best known as the homeland of Somalia's pirates, who once again are on the prowl, bedeviling aid shipments even further. "Is there actually any hope for the future in Somalia?" said the World Food Program's Somalia country director, Peter Goossens. "I don't know. [16]
It is clear to the world media, those who care to face the fact on the ground that Somali people are resisting from occupation forces protecting the warlord regime of Yusuf and Gedi.
Thus, TFG lacks consent of the people of Somalia, It is, therefore, illegitimate regime and calling as a legitimate by virtue of recognition by foreign bodies, is nonsense! In addition, Zinawi has his own reasons for fighting in Somalia in the name of Ethiopia. It is clear for those who bother to know that Zinawi is a dictator who is hated by the majority of the Ethiopian people.
Hence, by fighting a war in Somalia, in the name of Ethiopia, he is hoping to prolong his inevitable political demise. Given Zinawi’s record of gross and widespread human rights abuses in Ethiopia, the Bush administration is taking advantage of Zinawi’s capacity for ruthlessness to pacify the Somali population in the service of the new US puppet regime of transitional federal government.
But, with the rate at which Zinawi and the warlords are wrecking unmitigated death and destruction in Somalia and the absence of Al Qaida terror camps, or terrorists in Somalia, the Bush administration is running out of lies to justify the carnage he is causing in Somalia. For the Somali people the message is clear: we must resist the occupation of our country and victory shall be ours.
Amina Mire (Faculty: Department of Sociology and Anthropology)
Email: amina_mire@carleton.ca
Notes
1
2
Ibid.
3
Salim Lone. Inside Africa's Guantánamo:The only way the US can prop up its client regime in Somalia is through lawlessness and slaughter. 28 April 2007. The Guardian.4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Ibid.
13
14
Ibid.
15
16