George Galloway stands up against US and UK support of Ethopia's intervention into Somalia

Warlords Next Door?

Channel 4 Video Documentary

Dispatches reveals how key politicians at the heart of the vicious fighting in Somalia - described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis - enjoy incredibly close links to Britain. They have British or EU passports, their families live here and they commute between Somalia and homes in English cities. British taxpayers are financing them in the name of democracy - yet in Somalia they are linked to allegations of mass murder, torture, extortion and corruption.

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Part 4

Part 5

Our Government’s Dirty Little Secrets.

House of Commons debates - Wednesday, 11 June 2008 -

By George Galloway

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn .—[Ms Diana R. Johnson.]

Mr. Galloway: On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. This Adjournment debate was scheduled to begin at 7 pm and last for half an hour. I have spoken for 10 minutes, and the country—or at least those interested enough to watch on parliamentary television—will not hear the Minister reply.

Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Michael Lord): The hon. Gentleman has misunderstood. The Adjournment debate is now starting, which means that he has so far had bonus time. This is one of the procedures, as far as the House is concerned, we have to go through.

Mr. Galloway: That is truly magnificent, Mr. Deputy Speaker, as I have plenty to say. Perhaps I will be able to quote Amnesty International in more detail in the time that I did not think that I would have available.

This policy is not only morally bankrupt, it is politically disastrous. Afghanistan is the perfect example, but the Ethiopian Government preside over a country where famine and mass starvation stalk the land. They are being helped militarily to invade, occupy and threaten their neighbours. What can that conceivably do for our standing in Africa, or for our credibility when we lecture the Governments of Sudan or Zimbabwe?

It would be bad enough if our difficulties in that respect were confined to Africa, but the problem is much worse. The Somalians are the tallest people on earth, but they are virtually invisible, politically, on the international stage and in this country. Yet there are hundreds of thousands of Somalians here, either because they have European Union passports or because they are refugees from the very fighting that we initiated and are now fuelling. Increasingly, young Somalis are furious, bitter and angry. They nurse their wrath as they watch—on Somali television or other Muslim channels—the carnage being wrought in their country.

Two million people in Somalia are living as refugees, out of a population of 11 million. That is almost a fifth of the total: to scale it up, in our country that would amount to 12 million people. There are another 1 million Somali refugees in neighbouring countries, and God knows how many hundreds of thousands are scattered across the EU.

In their bitter exile, the sons—and may be the daughters too—of those Somali families are being brought up bitter and furious at the role played by the west in the problems that they see on their televisions screens. We have spent hours this afternoon trying to deal with the problem of terrorism, but we cannot see how that connects with the way that we constantly infuriate young Muslim boys and girls with the double standards and injustices of our policy towards their countries and the countries from which their parents come.

We cannot see the connection between the growth of extremism and our actions. The Government are always looking for a cleric or an organisation to ban or to blame for the radicalisation of Muslim youth in Britain. But those young people do not need a cleric or an organisation to radicalise them: they just have to watch the news and see what our Government are doing in Muslim countries such as Somalia.

I know that the Minister has seen Channel 4’s “Dispatches” programme. She will not claim otherwise, even though she is answering a debate on human rights in Somalia. I hope that she will do a better job than Lord Malloch-Brown did when it comes to explaining how are taxes are being used. Among other things, that tax money could be used to help starving people in Ethiopia. It could be used to keep our pensioners warm in winter or to keep some post offices open.

I see that the hon. Member for Poplar and Canning Town (Jim Fitzpatrick), who is Under-Secretary of State for Transport and the Minister responsible for closing post offices, is standing by your Chair, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I hope that that counts as being in the House and that it is therefore in order for me to refer to him.

The British tax money that I have mentioned could have been used for a better purpose, but instead it is being spent on the security forces in Somalia, which Amnesty International, as well as Channel 4, accuses of widespread abuses of human rights—of torture, murder, disappearances, kidnapping, extortion and grand larceny. Why are we allowing the Interior Minister of Somalia to travel back and forth into our country unmolested when he is accused by aid agencies of purloining international aid—desperately needed emergency aid for hungry people—for himself and for political purposes for his political clan? Why are the Government not stopping him at the border and questioning him about where the money went that was put into Somalia and has disappeared?

Aid agencies will not now, by and large, set foot in Somalia, so catastrophic has the situation there become. I ask the Minister why we are supporting the President, the Interior Minister and the chief of police in Somalia, and allowing them to come and go freely without answering the charges that are being made against them? When will the Government at least condemn the human rights abuses in Somalia? Amnesty has voluminously recorded them, but not a squeak has come from the Government, which has never done roaring at Sudan or Zimbabwe. Why? Because we are deeply complicit in that. Indeed, we are paying for it; we are paying for the security services that are committing these crimes in Somalia.

The Government might think that because most Somalis in Britain do not, for one reason or another, have votes, they can be ignored—that tall as they are, they can be disregarded. However, the truth is that the Somali community in Britain’s loathing of the actions of our Government is a ticking time bomb in Britain. I, if not the Minister, am constantly exposed in my constituency, and in Birmingham and Leicester and other places, to the anger of these young Somalis. There is a disaster waiting to happen. I hope that the Minister will announce today that, in the wake of the Channel 4 revelations, she will investigate the allegations properly, and that she will report her findings to the House.

I am talking in my speech tonight about not only the current British Government’s foreign policy towards the horn of Africa and Afghanistan, but about previous Governments’ foreign policies, too. I remember being on the Opposition Benches and accusing the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Thatcher, of having opened the gates to the barbarians by her support for the so-called mujaheddin in Afghanistan so many years ago. The policy that our Governments have followed of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” has proved to be fatally flawed everywhere that it has been tried, and it is now being tried all over again in Somalia.

Many Somalis will be watching our debate this evening—word is out about it in the Somali community, and it is being shown on Universal TV and other Somali channels. For their sake, I hope that the Minister will come clean about the dreadful problems that exist, and I also hope that she will say some words to the Ethiopian Government.

Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con): I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on having secured this debate. I apologise for having arrived late for it; I was caught somewhat unawares as it began early. What is best for Somalia and its people is, of course, security. Does the hon. Gentleman accept that the Ethiopian Government are providing security in Somalia at present, and that they want to withdraw from Somalia at the earliest possible moment? Will he also join me in encouraging the United Nations, the African Union Mission in Somalia—AMISOM—and the African Union to ensure that troops are put back into Somalia in order to give Somalis that security, which they need? Ethiopian troops want to return to Addis Ababa.

Mr. Galloway: I do not accept that at all, and it seems that I know the Ethiopian Government rather better than the hon. Gentleman does. As I explained before he came in, I knew them when they were pro-Albanian Maoist guerrillas in the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front. I knew all the leaders—they are now the Government Ministers—and I know that they have no intention of withdrawing from Somalia unless they are forced to do so. They want to occupy Somalia because they have been paid to do so by the Government of the United States and our own Government. The Ethiopian Government are doing a job for what they imagine to be the western part of the international community. I see the Minister for closing post offices laughing. His constituency contains many Somalis, as does mine, and I hope that the camera caught him laughing.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Jim Fitzpatrick): I apologise for intervening on the hon. Gentleman, but I must point out that I did not laugh at anything that he has been saying so far.

Mr. Galloway: I shall not go further down that track. Perhaps the camera caught the verisimilitude.

The truth is that the Ethiopian Government are carrying out a service for the people who give them weapons, for the people who give them money and for the people who give them diplomatic and political support. They are having a beano in the Ethiopian embassy next week. Perhaps the hon. Member for The Wrekin (Mark Pritchard) will go to it; he will certainly get an invitation in the post following his intervention. The Ethiopian Government are having a beano in the Ethiopian embassy in London to celebrate the 17th anniversary of their coming to power, and it is going to be a very grand event.

That event comes at a time when the Ethiopian Government’s own people are starving to death. Their children are starving to death—120,000 children have a month to live—they are invading and occupying their neighbouring countries and nobody says boo about it. In fact, far from saying boo, people are saying, “Here’s some more military and financial aid to do it.” That is because the Government of President Bush, who are utterly discredited and on their way out, with virtually nowhere to go except Downing street on Sunday for one last photo call, regard the defeat of the former Islamic Government in Somalia as part of their war on terror.

That is what this is all about. Ethiopia is playing the role of hammer in the horn of Africa for the policy of the United States and its war on terror. That is what Ethiopia is doing, so it will not withdraw until a new American Government, hopefully with a Kenyan-affiliated President, tell them that actually this policy is deeply flawed. The puppet regime of British citizens imposed on Somalia by the Ethiopian invasion would not last five minutes if the Ethiopian forces withdrew—that regime would have to withdraw with them. So, any Government who come to power in Somalia in the future will be filled with hatred of Britain and the United States.

That is the problem that we keep making everywhere; we intervene either to prop up tyrants or to support tyrants because we do not like the tyrants that they are fighting against, and we generate still more problems for ourselves. We wonder why that is, and we agonisingly debate anti-terrorism laws. We wonder why so many people in the Muslim world want to hurt us. We wonder why so many young people in the Muslim world are so bitter and angry about us that they want to hurt us. Is it any wonder? Can it be any wonder to any sane person? I beg the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to believe me when I say that it is because of the kinds of policies that I have described. I talk to Somalis all the time, and I know that the rage the Somali community both in Britain and around the world feels about Britain and America’s role in their country generates terrorists. As the right hon. Member for North Antrim (Rev. Ian Paisley), who saved the Government’s bacon earlier this evening, is in his place and as we spent so many hours discussing anti-terrorism, let me spell it out: we are making new terrorists in Britain with our policy towards Somalia, with our double standards and with our hypocrisy.

Mark Pritchard: While the Government of Ethiopia are not perfect—indeed, there are Governments closer to home who are not perfect—it is right that human rights abuses by the Somali security services are fully investigated. Nevertheless, does the hon. Gentleman accept that if Ethiopian troops withdrew, it would create a security vacuum in which terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, would create mayhem in the horn of Africa, which is a key strategic location, and that would come back to haunt us?

Mr. Galloway: I said in this House when it was recalled a few days after the atrocity of 9/11 that if we handled it the wrong way we would make 10,000 new bin Ladens. We have handled it the wrong way, and we have made 10,000 new bin Ladens. The problem of al-Qaeda in Somalia has been made worse by the western intervention and the Ethiopian invasion. Far more people have been recruited to a narrow, fundamentalist, separatist, violent Islamism by our policy than ever would have been if that policy had never been formed.

The hon. Gentleman obviously has not read the Amnesty International document. The Ethiopian forces are not providing security: they are providing mass murder and terror in occupied Somalia. The refugee camps are full with 2 million people. No one can walk on the streets of Mogadishu. Channel 4’s reporters were almost killed making their programme. Some of the team on the same vehicle with them were shot dead live on television—

Mark Pritchard: By Somalis.

Mr. Galloway: I do not know if they were shot by Somalis or Ethiopians. The point is that the country has been plunged into utter lawlessness, and to pretend that the Ethiopian Government are providing security is completely ridiculous. The words Somalia and security should not even be mentioned in the same sentence.

There may be a need for African Union forces or Arab League forces. This conflict will go on and I hope that the Minister will not claim that the deal reached this week is any kind of solution to the problem. The people who are doing the fighting are not involved in the deal. It is like a peace process in the north of Ireland that excluded the people who were doing the fighting. That is what has happened in relation to Somalia in the past few days.

I am grateful for the extra time that I had for this debate, and I apologise for my churlish point of order, which turned out to be entirely misconceived. I hope for some answers from the Minister this evening.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Meg Munn): I welcome the opportunity to reply to the hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Mr. Galloway) in this debate. I see this as an excellent chance to highlight how the Foreign and Commonwealth Office seeks to address a number of issues relating to Somalia.

As my noble Friend Lord Malloch-Brown, the Minister for Africa, said in his statement this afternoon, we congratulate the Somali transitional federal Government and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia on reaching agreement on the cessation of violence. That agreement was signed by both parties in Djibouti on Monday and witnessed by members of the international community. I wish to thank the UN Secretary-General’s special representative, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, on his continued efforts to mediate in the talks between the parties which resulted in the agreement. This is a positive step and we look forward to all parties fulfilling their commitment to cease armed confrontation. We are committed to working with the UN to support this process.

Human rights issues in Somalia are longstanding and complex. They cannot be attributed to any one cause, and there are no easy or obvious solutions. Somalia is not like other countries. Serious violence, lack of governance structures and the deteriorating humanitarian situation have been ongoing for 17 years. Many in Somali society have been brutalised by years of violence. It is therefore often individuals, not answerable to any particular group or commander, who carry out abuses on their own initiative. That makes it even more difficult to prevent further abuses and to bring those responsible to justice.

Given that complexity and the insecurity in Somalia, there is little opportunity to monitor the situation reliably or gather and verify facts or allegations. Reporting is often biased and may be exaggerated to exert influence on the international community. The only sustainable way to address human rights in the long term is to engage in effective state building, concentrating on developing institutions, parliamentary accountability, an inclusive security sector and delivery of basic services. Short-term fixes that do not focus on state building will mean we return to the issue year after year, prolonging the suffering of the Somali people.

Reports of incidents and accusations of human rights abuses by Ethiopian troops are difficult to corroborate and have been categorically denied by the Ethiopian Government. Ethiopian troops in Somalia are carrying out a role that security providers in Somalia do not have the capacity for. Many critics forget that fighting between militias went on for 15 years before Ethiopia intervened, at the invitation of Somalia’s transitional federal Government.

African Union member nations have not yet committed to contributing sufficient troops to allow for full deployment of the African Union mission in Somalia, which currently has only 2,400 of the 8,000 troops mandated. Further planning for a possible UN mission was called for by UN Security Council resolution 1814, although that is unlikely to be mandated soon. Evidence from other Ethiopian peacekeeping deployments indicates that they make a positive contribution to missions. Ethiopian troops are likely to form the largest contingent of the UN-African Union mission in Darfur.

We regularly engage with human rights organisations, listen to their views and appreciate their efforts to gather information and evidence on human rights. We and they fully acknowledge that allegations of abuse are made against all parties to the conflict in Somalia. We sponsored an Arria meeting at the United Nations in New York on 31 March to enable Governments and the non-governmental organisation community freely to discuss human rights and humanitarian issues and to exchange views on how to achieve progress in Somalia.

The hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Bow might be interested to know that in response to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew), I said:

“We unreservedly condemn all proven incidents of human rights abuse and expect those responsible to face justice.”—[ Official Report, 3 June 2008; Vol. 476, c. 832W.]

My noble Friend the Minister for Africa, Lord Malloch-Brown, raised the issue of human rights in Somalia with the Ethiopian Prime Minister in late January 2008. Our ambassador to Ethiopia regularly raises the issue of respect for human rights in Somalia at senior levels of the Ethiopian Government. Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials in London and at the UN have also raised the issue with their Ethiopian counterparts.

Ethiopia has told us that it intends to withdraw from Somalia and that it has reduced force numbers by more than half since late February 2007. The Ethiopian Government are extremely positive about the newly signed peace agreement, which includes a strategy for their withdrawal from Somalia. Until Ethiopia withdraws its troops completely, we urge them to use only appropriate force, adhere to international humanitarian law and respect human rights. However, for Ethiopia to withdraw from Somalia before an effective alternative force has been established would risk creating a dangerous security vacuum. Somalis would suffer the most from such a development.

The UK is a leading contributor to world efforts to rebuild the Somali state. We support the efforts of the UN Secretary General’s special representative for Somalia to engage with civil society and to help bring about social and political reconciliation that will lead to greater respect for human rights and religious freedoms for all Somalis. Through helping to shape UN Security Council policy, and our membership of the EU and the international contact group, we press for greater focus on human rights in Somalia. We asked the UN to enhance its capacity to monitor and report on the human rights situation in Somalia and 11 Jun 2008 : Column 434
Council resolution 1814, unanimously adopted on 15 May, and the EU General Assembly and External Relations Council conclusions, adopted on 26 May, support the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, including the independent expert for Somalia, and encourage them to undertake a fact-finding and assessment mission to Somalia to address the human rights situation.

We co-chair the donors group and are the second largest bilateral humanitarian and development donor. We are also the second largest bilateral donor, after the US, for the African Union mission to Somalia. We are a key donor to the UN Development Programme effort to develop a full justice system, including improving the police force and the judiciary and penal systems to an internationally acceptable standard. I understand that the hon. Gentleman thought that that issue was a matter for the Department for International Development, but I can confirm that it is a policy area of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

We value human rights highly. No other states are as active as the UK on human rights issues in Somalia. We urge other states to join our efforts and encourage international human rights organisations to concentrate their advocacy activities on pressing other less active states for support, too.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at twenty-five minutes past Seven o’clock.

Original article posted here.

The price of our action: How many of the world's most dangerous places has the US had a role in destabilizing? (Answer: All, but one)

Travel Picks: The world's top 10 dangerous destinations

NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters Life!) - People are opting for more unforgettable holidays but some countries can be risky even for the most adventurous travelers.

Forbes.com has compiled a list of the most dangerous destinations. The list is not endorsed by Reuters.

1. Somalia

This Horn of Africa country has been in the grip of warlords for the last decade, fighting for control of drug and weapon trafficking rights. Risks include military clashes, kidnapping, landmines and pirates.

2. Iraq

Military action, collateral damage, insurgency and suicide bombings are daily occurrences in the country. Security experts say unstable areas include Baghdad and stretch from Tikrit in the north to Hillah in the south and from Mandali in the east to Ramadi in the west.

3. Afghanistan

Even though the ruling Taliban regime was officially ousted in Afghanistan in 2001, attacks from those still loyal to it and to al Qaeda continue. Military personnel and civilians are killed by improvised explosive devices daily.

4. Haiti

Sharing the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with top vacation destination Dominican Republic, Haiti, the western hemisphere's poorest country, is plagued by civil unrest, police corruption and readily available firearms.

5. Pakistan

The country, which borders Afghanistan, suffers from ongoing geopolitical turmoil. Bomb attacks and rioting between Shia and Sunni Muslim communities are a threat. In December 2007, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated during a suicide bombing after months of strife over delayed elections.

6. Sudan

Despite a peace agreement in 2005, areas of extreme danger due to battles between government troops and militias and local insurgent groups dot the country. Areas to avoid completely include the western region of Darfur, Ethiopian and Eritrean border regions and all of southern Sudan.

7. Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

A civil war that formally ended in 2003 still affects the country. As Rwandan and Ugandan troops pulled out of DRC towards the end of the war, rival militias have been fighting each other to fill the power vacuum this created. Crime is rampant in major cities and security conditions can fluctuate drastically even within minor distances.

8. Lebanon

Culminating in the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, Lebanon is split by pro- and anti-Syrian forces vying for control of the government. Other risks include military battles in the south with neighboring Israel and civil unrest.

9. Zimbabwe

Anti-western sentiment prominently expressed by officials, out-of-control inflation and oppression employed by the government to silence dissenting voices are common in Zimbabwe.

10. Palestinian Territories

The region is caught in a brutal tug-of-war between pro-Fatah and pro-Hamas factions. Political and military battles with Israel, especially in the Gaza Strip, have made the security situation in this territory very unstable. Poverty and chronic violence add to the instability.

Original article posted here.

The CIA's African follies

Dyer: CIA behind Somalia's bloody occupation by Ethiopian troops

Gwynne Dyer

On Friday, it will be is exactly a year since Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, fell to Ethiopian troops and the occupation has been one of the most brutal on record. The resistance started at once, and Ethiopian counter-insurgency tactics are not gentle.

As early as last April, Germany's ambassador to Somalia, Walter Lindner, wrote a public letter condemning the indiscriminate use of air strikes and heavy artillery in densely populated parts of Mogadishu, the systematic rape of women and even the bombing of hospitals. By now, the Ethiopian army's attempts to terrorize the residents of Mogadishu into submission have driven 600,000 of them - 60 percent of the population - to flee the city.

The Ethiopians and their local allies indignantly deny these figures, but they come from the United Nations aid coordinator for Somalia, Eric Laroche, and the makeshift camps along the roads leading away from Mogadishu are there for all to see. It is, says Laroche, the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa, worse even than Darfur. But "since it is in Somalia, no one cares."

You will notice that some of the phrases used above do not appear in the agency reports about Somalia. The wire services do not talk about an Ethiopian occupation of Somalia, and they refer to the local Somali collaborators as the "transitional federal government," or TGF. This is mainly in deference to the United States, which organized and backed the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia.

The curse of Somalia is the clan system. It is the main point of reference for most Somalis, and it really became a crippling burden when long-ruling dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. In the pre-independence days and the early years afterwards, the clans were able to unite against their Italian and British colonial rulers, but in 1991 they had to create a new government without an external enemy. They couldn't do it.

As the clans fought it out in the streets, the whole infrastructure of an organized state collapsed. By 1992 American and United Nations forces arrived to help the millions of famine-stricken refugees, but they were only drawn into the inter-clan fighting as well, and by 1994 they had all withdrawn, leaving Somalia to anarchy and civil war for the next decade. But in fact most of the country was fairly stable under the control of one clan or another, with only the Mogadishu area still a battleground between rival clan warlords.

This did not greatly inconvenience the United States, which developed a keen interest in the politics of the region after the atrocities of 9/11. At first the U.S. just made deals with the various warlords to ensure that no jihadi fanatics created a base there. But it got more upset when an organization called the Union of Islamic Courts chased all the warlords out of Mogadishu in 2006 and gave the capital its first taste of peace and good government since 1991.

The UIC was actually created by prominent merchants from the locally dominant Hawiye clan who wanted a safe environment in which to do business. The "Islamic" aspect of it was mainly there to provide a rallying point that other clans could identify with, though that obviously also attracted a certain number of earnest and bearded young men. Some of them, unfortunately, favored a rhetorical style that triggers a knee-jerk reaction in jittery post-9/11 Americans.

The people of Mogadishu, enjoying their first taste of normality in 15 years, overwhelmingly supported the UIC, but the United States decided it must be overthrown. To do the job, Washington turned to its close ally Ethiopia, Somalia's perennial enemy. The Ethiopians, who have no interest in a stable and strong Somalia, were happy to oblige - and for diplomatic cover, the U.S. could use the "transitional federal government" of Somalia.

The TFG had been created in Kenya in 2004 under UN auspices. Each of the major clans (Hawiye, Darod, Dir and Rahanweyn) appointed 61 members to a "parliament" while all the minor clans shared 31 members between them. The "parliament" then chose a president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. It was the 14th attempt since the overthrow of Siad Barre to create a Somali government.

The TFG set up in the town of Baidoa in early 2006, and promptly went to war with the Union of Islamic Courts that controlled the capital. Since it had only about 5,000 soldiers of its own, the TFG depended from the start on far larger numbers of Ethiopian troops to do the actual fighting. Large numbers of government members resigned as it became clear that the TFG had fallen into the hands of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Ethiopians, but a force of about 20,000 Ethiopian troops (with some U.S. air support) fought its way into Mogadishu a year ago.

With the occupation of Mogadishu, the interval of peace ended, and the past year's fighting has driven more than half the city's population into flight. The TFG has been permanently discredited by its link to the hated Ethiopians, but it will probably take more years of war to end the occupation, and a lot more Somalis will die. All because they called it the Union of Islamic Courts.

If only they had called it the Union of Buddhist Courts. Or Protestant Courts. Anything but the "I" word.

GWYNNE DYER is a London-based independent journalist.

Original article posted here.

Once again the Asian Times demonstrates its willingess to have great, probing coverage. Jim Lobe analysis the Moron's crumbling War of Error

New crises sap Bush's 'war on terror'

By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - Just as the White House claims it has finally turned the corner in what it defines as the "central front" in the "war on terror" - Iraq - it has found itself desperately trying to contain new crises on the war's periphery stretching east to Pakistan, west to Turkey and south to the Horn of Africa.

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf's latest "coup" last weekend, combined with the continuing threat of a Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan and the looming probability of war between US-backed Ethiopia and Eritrea, have added to the growing impression that Washington has ever more become hostage to forces and personalities far beyond its control or understanding.

The fact that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was reduced to making urgent telephone appeals to heads of state to heed Washington's wishes - in Turkey's case not to invade Kurdistan; in Musharraf's not to declare a state of emergency - has only underlined just how impotent and unprepared the world's sole superpower appears to have become.

Worse, if events turn out badly, these crises could deal devastating setbacks to Washington's hopes of bolstering "moderate" forces against its perceived enemies, be they Sunni jihadis or the allegedly Tehran-led "axis" of Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas.

The latest events come amid a lack of concrete progress on the Israel-Palestinian peace process, the ongoing political impasse in Lebanon, and still-mounting tensions between Iran and the US.

For some veteran observers, the current rash of crises recalls the situation of 1979-80 when the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, an Islamist uprising in Saudi Arabia, the execution by Pakistan's military regime of former president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and the bloody, superpower-fueled Ogaden war between Somalia and Ethiopia formed what was then called the "arc of crisis" that persuaded president Jimmy Carter to launch a major build-up in Washington's military presence from the Red Sea to the Gulf.

But "the situation we face today is much more difficult," one former senior State Department official told Inter Press Service this week. "Back then, we didn't have 200,000 US troops fighting on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan; nor did we have the anti-Americanism that now pervades the entire region. And, frankly, to deal with all this, we don't even have the regional expertise in the government that we had in 1979."

Of the three new crises, the situation along the border between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan most directly threatens the administration's efforts to stabilize Iraq.

Senior US officials are hoping that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Washington on Monday, during which President George W Bush promised to boost its intelligence cooperation with Ankara in its fight against Iraq-based Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas, will give him enough political capital back home to ward off calls by hawkish military commanders and opposition parties to cross the border in force, at least until the winter snows trap the PKK in its bases in the Qandil mountains.

The stakes are very high. Most analysts believe that a major Turkish incursion, if it occurs, will likely spur resistance by Iraqi Kurdish militias, the peshmerga, on which Washington depends both to keep northern Iraq secure and stable and to provide the most reliable recruits for Iraq's new, US-trained army.

At the same time, Turkey is a "moderate" predominantly Muslim nation and a close North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally, which not only contributes troops to NATO's peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan, but also provides access to Incirlik air base on which the US military relies heavily for resupplying its forces in Iraq.

In other words, Washington can ill afford a major clash between Turkey and Kurdish forces in Kurdistan lest it risk losing an ally whose help is considered virtually indispensable to stabilizing Iraq.

But Erdogan's delegation left Washington this week clearly dissatisfied with Bush's new commitments, and, as the Turks have warned, another lethal PKK raid, such as the one that took the lives of 20 soldiers last month, could force his hand.

While fending off a Turkish invasion is critical to US efforts in Iraq, the stakes raised by Musharraf's declaration of a state of emergency in Pakistan - which, according to most terrorism experts in Washington, has been the true "central front" in the anti-terror struggle since al-Qaeda and the Taliban were pushed out of Afghanistan and into the frontier areas of its eastern neighbor in late 2001 - are higher yet.

Washington, which has provided Musharraf and his military with some US$15 billion in official and covert aid over the past six years to encourage their cooperation in Afghanistan and the larger "war on terror", has become increasingly disillusioned with their performance over the past year.

The US-inspired plan that Musharraf share power with his "moderate" civilian opposition, notably former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, appears to be in tatters following the declaration of emergency powers.

On Friday, Pakistani police confined Bhutto to her house in Islamabad and arrested thousands of her supporters who had planned to stage a mass rally against Musharraf.

And in the frontier tribal regions on the border with Afghanistan, Musharraf, despite sending in troops, has been unable to enforce the government's writ. According to a recent US intelligence estimate, senior al-Qaeda leaders have largely reconstituted their central-command network here and the Taliban have gained both a safe haven and an endless supply of recruits.

"Now we have the worst of all possible worlds," noted the chairman of a key congressional foreign affairs committee, Gary Ackerman, on Wednesday.

"Our ally is an isolated and deeply resented leader who is less popular with his own people than Osama bin Laden; who instead of arresting the terrorists who pose an existential threat to his regime, if not to the country, is arresting the very people with whom he could have worked to generate the political support necessary to rid Pakistan of extremists."

Unable to prevent Musharraf's coup, the administration, including Bush himself, is now pressing him hard to comply as soon as possible with his previous pledges to resign as army chief and permit free elections that would presumably result in Bhutto's election as prime minister.

But even if Musharraf does this - as he promised again on Thursay, saying that polls would be held before mid-February - it remains unclear whether the damage can be undone. Any remaining confidence in Musharraf in Washington, let alone in Pakistan, is evaporating. Washington has reportedly begun discreetly contacting other generals about the possibility of replacing him, a move that itself carries risks of greater instability and hence opportunities for radical Islamists to advance their position in the Muslim world's only nuclear state.

Compared to both Kurdistan and Pakistan, events in the Horn of Africa appear very remote. But, in a stark warning issued by the International Crisis Group (ICG) this week, that front in Washington's "war on terror" - where Ethiopia has acted as Washington's regional enforcer - has also come under increasingly urgent threat.

Ethiopia and Eritrea, which Washington recently threatened to declare a state sponsor of international terrorism, have engaged in a military build-up of "alarming proportions" along the same border where they fought a bloody war from 1998 to 2000, according to the ICG.

Both Ethiopia and the Bush administration have been infuriated by Eritrea's alleged support for Somalia's Islamic Courts Union that was ousted from power in Mogadishu and other parts of the country by an invasion of Addis Ababa's powerful, US-backed military 11 months ago. The Ethiopians have since been bogged down in an increasingly bloody occupation that many analysts have compared to the US occupation of Iraq.

Absent urgent international, and especially US, efforts to stop it, war could break out "within weeks", according to ICG president Gareth Evans. "There will be no easy military solution if that happens. We are looking at a protracted conflict on Eritrean soil, destabilization of Ethiopia, and a horrible new humanitarian crisis."

Original article posted here.

Underreported Stories

World’s 10 Stories You Don’t (MayBe) Know,Because It’s Underreported

After months of fighting, Islamist militants in June defeated the warlords in capital city Mogadishu and now control most of southern Somalia. The country, which has not had a functioning central government since 1991, has become “the largest potential safe haven for al Qaeda in Africa,” according to the International Crisis Group. This fall a U.N. report detailed how Iran and other countries were smuggling arms to the Islamists and how some 700 Somali fighters were sent to Lebanon to fight alongside Hizballah. Amid all the bloodshed, humanitarian workers are struggling to deliver aid to Somalis, who, after enduring a severe drought, are now dealing with massive flooding.

No.2 TUBERCULOSIS GETS EVEN SCARIER

Worldwide, tuberculosis — a bacterial lung disease spread mainly by coughing — kills one person every 18 seconds. And because HIV activates latent TB infection, tuberculosis has become the leading cause of AIDS-related deaths in the developing world. The TB vaccine is not very effective; diagnostic tests fail to identify at least 50% of cases, and patients often fail to complete the six-month treatment regimen, which contributes to new drug-resistant strains. Of the 9 million or so new TB cases each year, about 425,000 of them are resistant to standard medicines. One severely resistant strain that emerged in southern Africa this year is virtually impossible to treat.

No.3 INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY REFORMS

Whatever happened to the post-9/11 push to reform U.S. intelligence gathering and make sure the myriad agencies are all playing nice with each other? Not surprisingly, there has been little information about what’s going on with the spooks. Details from classified documents revealed that the intelligence budget has more than doubled in the past eight years and that the CIA is teaching FBI agents some of its tradecraft. But five years after the World Trade Center attacks, there was also word of new initiatives being launched to eliminate overlap and bring order to the chaotic fight against terrorism. So… uhh… how’s that going?

No.4 CONGO’S STILL-RAVAGED STATE

Although the Democratic Republic of Congo received some attention this year for holding its first free elections in four decades, the war-torn country — where nearly four million people have died as a result of the conflict since 1998 — is still home to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Congo is plagued by malnutrition, malaria and other largely preventable conditions that kill 1,200 people a day — a death toll, as UNICEF points out, that is the equivalent of suffering a 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami every six months. More children die in Congo before reaching their fifth birthday than in China, a country with 23 times the population.

No.5 CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN IRAQ

Not credible. That’s how President Bush described a peer-reviewed study this fall that calculated some 600,000 Iraqis had died from war-related violence since March 2003. The Johns Hopkins study, based on a survey of 1,849 Iraqi households, was dismissed by the White House for its small sample size. But in December, the Iraq Study Group (ISG) lambasted the Pentagon for “significant underreporting of the violence in Iraq.” For example, official accounts tallied 93 attacks one day in July, yet, according to the ISG, “a careful review of the reports for that single day brought to light 1,100 acts of violence.” Maybe those Johns Hopkins academics weren’t so far off after all.

No.6 THE $10 BILLION EFFORT TO REBUILD AFGHANISTAN

Things are bad in Iraq, but how goes it in Afghanistan? A joint report by the Defense Department and the State Department found that the U.S.-trained police force in Afghanistan is not capable of carrying out routine law enforcement work. Managers of the $1.1 billion training program, the report concluded, can’t keep track of how many officers are on duty, let alone what happened to all the equipment that has gone missing. Another report on contractors, by a California-based watchdog group, detailed such grim outcomes as new schools so shoddy they had to be rebuilt after a winter’s worth of snow and a highway that started crumbling before it was finished.

No.7 RECORD NUMBER OF AMERICANS JAILED

The Justice Department reported in November that a record 7 million people — or one in every 32 adults in the U.S. — were behind bars, on probation or on parole at the end of last year. Some 2.2 million Americans were in prison or jail on Dec. 31. 2005, but there was little coverage of this population’s 2.7% rise from the previous year or of its eight-fold increase since 1975. Nor was there much discussion of overcrowding (the federal prison system is operating at 34% over capacity) or of the cost associated with keeping so many people behind bars (it costs more than $20,000 per year for every person incarcerated).

No.8 MORE U.S. TROOPS WILLING TO REENLIST

While there was much talk about the Army raising the maximum age for new recruits from 35 to 42, the lesser-known development is that the Pentagon managed not only to meet, but to exceed its 2006 reenlistment goals for every branch of the military. Most significantly, the Army met its retention goal of 64,200 in August, with two months to spare before the end of the fiscal year. Another surprising sign of the times: by mid-October, the Marine Corps had received 3,870 re-enlistment applications and thus was on its way to meeting 63% of its annual retention goal less than two weeks into the new fiscal year.

No.9 A SPRAWLING INSURGENCY IN INDIA

Fueled by rampant poverty in rural areas, a 10,000-strong Maoist army threatens to take the shine off of India’s economic boom. The rebels are known as Naxalites after the eastern town of Naxalbari, where the violent peasant uprising began in 1967. Their attacks in impoverished but mineral-rich regions — on everything from mines and factories to trains and jails — led to at least 625 deaths in the first nine months of 2006, according to the Asian Centre for Human Rights. In August, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ranked the growing Maoist rebellion alongside terrorism as the greatest threats facing the country’s stability.

No.10 MIDDLE-CLASS NEIGHBORHOODS ARE SHRINKING IN THE U.S.

The percentage of middle-income neighborhoods in the 100 largest metropolitan areas across the country dropped from 58% in 1970 to 41% in 2000, according to the Brookings Institution. The study, which defined moderate-income families as those with incomes between 80% and 120% of the local median, found that these neighborhoods are disappearing faster than the proportion of metropolitan families earning middle incomes, which in three decades has fallen from 28% to 22%. The trend suggests that people are moving out of economically diverse neighborhoods, and the resulting disparities between high- and low-income neighborhoods make it harder for lower-income homeowners to move up the residential ladder.

Original article posted here.

Does this look like a small bump in the road towards One World Government? Sure looks like it

Reality bites for United States of Africa dream after summit

ACCRA (AFP): The drive towards forging a United States of Africa was running out of steam Wednesday as leaders filed away from a summit without agreeing on a timeline for creating a new government for the continent.

The three-day summit in Ghana, which wrapped up shortly before midnight on Tuesday, was devoted to a grand debate on a union government with burning issues such as Darfur and Somalia barely getting a look in.

But when host President John Kufuor delivered a closing declaration, it was clear that leaders who favour a gradual approach towards integration had stymied the fast-track ambitions of Libya's Moamer Kadhafi and Senegal's Abdoulaye Wade.

In the absence of any timetable, Kufuor announced an audit of the current executive body, the African Union commission, and the commissioning of four studies on the prospects of a new government.

"Africa shall evolve," he told journalists. "It's not a revolution we are invoking so we cannot give you a timeline."

One of the studies will focus on "the contents of the union government concept and its relations with national governments" while another will examine its "domains of competence and impact ... on sovereignty".

The others will concentrate on the "elaboration of a road map and timeframe for establishing the union government" and how such a project would be funded.

The scope of the topics under review illustrate the lack of consensus among leaders of the world's poorest continent on how they want to move forward.

While many paid lip service to the idea of an alternative USA, few went along with Kadhafi's blueprint for the creation of a 15-member cabinet -- including defence, foreign and trade ministers -- by 2008.

For all the talk of unity, analysts believe differences among the 53 nations are too vast to accommodate a centralised executive which could speak with one voice.

"The United States of Africa has immense emotional appeal but as a political programme it does not have an enormous amount of traction," said Terence Corrigan of the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg.

"Among countries like South Africa there's a realisation, which they are reluctant to express too loudly, that you have a big gulf in terms of economic development and political cultures which militates against the rush towards a union government.

"You also have the competing tradition within Africa that the notion of sovereignty is a very powerful one."

Indeed, in an echo of the arguments within the European Union, many heads of state expressed fears about sovereignty.

In an address to the summit on Tuesday, EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Europe's experience was political integration came after and not before economic integration.

Kadhafi arrived in Accra after stopovers in some of Africa's most impoverished countries such as Guinea and Sierra Leone, calling for "the voice of the people to be heard.

The shortcomings of the AU, established five years ago in Durban, have been exposed by its failure to persuade anyone bar Uganda to send peacekeepers to Somalia and the inability of a poorly-equipped force to stem the bloodshed in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Many leaders, including Mbeki who hosted the Durban summit, believe the AU needs nurturing rather than a complete overhaul.

Much of its troubles have stemmed from a lack of finance. An eve of summit meeting of foreign ministers was handed a report which showed only seven states were up-to-date with their dues.

Ludeki Chweya, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, said many leaders want to give the AU more time to prove its worth.

"I think there's scepticism among some leaders because the matter has come up too suddenly," he said. "It seems to me that it was a bit rushed."

Original article posted here.

The anarchy that we have created in Somalia. Make no mistake: this is OUR war.

Fighting returns after Somali government claims victory over insurgents

By SALAD DUHUL

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Resident's of Somalia's shattered capital began returning home Friday, following the government's claim of victory after nine days of fierce fighting with Islamic insurgents. But questions remained over how long the peace would last.

Just hours after Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said the Islamic insurgents were finished, a group of masked gunmen attacked the main hotel where government officials live. The attack lasted about an hour, but there were no reports of casualties.

None of the insurgents could be reached for comment. Hawiye clan elders, who have also opposed the government in the past, refused to comment on Gedi's claim.

While some of the most desperate victims of the recent fighting returned to their homes on Friday, few believed that the Islamic insurgency was over.

"The insurgents can use Arab-style explosions," said businessman Abdullahi Kulmiye, using the local term for suicide bombings. "I don't think they accept yesterday's defeat. I believe they will restart the war until they get a victory over the government."

Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies have been trying to wipe out the insurgents since late March, with the unrelenting rain of mortar shells and artillery taking the highest toll on civilians. Rights groups say the fighting killed more than 1,000 people and sent up to 400,000 fleeing for safety.

In the past nine days alone, the death toll was more than 400.

"We have won the fighting against the insurgents," Gedi told The Associated Press on Thursday, saying small, mopping-up operations were still under way and that more than 100 insurgents had surrendered to the government.

"The worst of the fighting in the city is now over," he said, and called for residents to return to their homes.

Western diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of damaging relations with Somalia's government, said the insurgents had suffered large numbers of casualties and were running low on ammunition, but were not yet defeated.

The government has declared victory before, only to have the insurgents reappear a few weeks later.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the international community to make "concerted efforts" to restore peace and security to Somalia.

"I'm gravely concerned about this ongoing violence in Somalia," he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday.

Somalia is facing a dire humanitarian crisis after the fighting levelled homes and sent hundreds of thousands of civilians into squalid camps or seeking shelter along roadsides.

The United Nations' top humanitarian official said Thursday that more people have been displaced in Somalia than anywhere else in the world this year. And, he said, international aid groups only have access to a fraction of them.

"The situation is indeed extremely worrying," said John Holmes, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs. While UN agencies and other relief groups are trying to provide aid, they can only reach about 60,000 of the homeless at the moment because of fighting in and around the capital of Mogadishu.

The insurgents are linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, which was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by U.S. special forces. The U.S. has accused the courts of having ties to al-Qaida.

The militants reject any secular government, and have sworn to launch an Iraq-style insurgency.

Gedi told the AP that he was confident the group would not re-emerge because the government and allied forces were seizing the insurgents.

"They are not getting away, we are capturing them, we are bringing them to justice," he said.

Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy. The current administration was formed in 2004 but has struggled to extend its control over the country.

Original article posted here.

We have brought our version of peace, prosperity and democracy not only to Iraq, but also to Somalia

Shells rock Mogadishu, corpses rot in street

By Sahal Abdulle

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Rotting corpses lay in the open and explosions shook Mogadishu on Sunday for a fifth day of battles between insurgents and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops that have killed more than 200 people, residents said.

Illustrating regional divisions many say are fomenting the escalating war, Eritrea pulled out of the east African group IGAD after a rift with Ethiopia over Somalia. The feuding neighbors each accuse the other of stirring the conflict.

In an ever-growing exodus some say is nearing half a million people, hundreds more Somalis trudged out of Mogadishu on Sunday, dragging and carrying belongings on their head.

"I have lost all hope," one woman said, walking at the head of 11 relatives, mainly children.

A Reuters correspondent in central Mogadishu was repeatedly woken through the night by the sound of mortars, mainly from the north of the city where the worst fighting has been.

Insurgents are barricaded behind makeshift sandbanks and race through streets on pickups turned into battle-wagons, while Ethiopian and Somali troops fire heavy artillery and make forays into their strongholds with armored cars.

With an insurgency simmering since the ouster of militant Islamist rulers from Mogadishu over the New Year, this week's violence has been one of the worst sustained flare-ups since then. A previous four-day spike in battles at the end of March killed at least 1,000 people, mainly civilians.

Bodies lay on the streets on Sunday, some mutilated and decapitated by incessant shelling that has pulverized residential neighborhoods considered Islamist strongholds.

MAKESHIFT GRAVES

With Somalis keen to bury their dead quickly in accord with Muslim custom, some were digging makeshift graves by the road.

The Islamists ruled most of south Somalia for the second half of 2006, before being defeated by the interim government and its Ethiopian military backers in a war over the New Year.

But Islamist fighters -- backed by some disgruntled Hawiye clan elements and foreign jihadists -- have regrouped to rise up against President Abdullahi Yusuf's administration and his Ethiopian backers whom they regard as hated foreign invaders.

Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of sending arms and men to support the Islamists, while Asmara says Addis Ababa is occupying Somalia illegally at the behest of the United States.

Eritrea's exit from the seven-member Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) was a blow to diplomatic efforts to unite foreign opinion on pacifying Somalia.

"The Government of Eritrea was compelled to take the move due to the fact that a number of repeated and irresponsible resolutions that undermine regional peace and security have been adopted in the guise of IGAD," said a statement on the government Web site, shabait.com.

A meeting of IGAD foreign ministers two weeks ago in Kenya became a forum for the festering feud between Ethiopia and Eritrea, still bitter over their 1998-2000 border war and now locked in what many analysts see as a proxy war in Somalia.

Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea are the countries who make up the east African bloc.

The United Nations says more than 321,000 residents have fled Mogadishu since February, but locals put the figure higher.

"I think it's nearer 500,000 now," said the head of a Somali think-tank, who asked not to be named because of the precarious security situation.

Original article posted here.

Why Weazl hates being right . . .

Weazl knew this was going to happen FOUR MONTHS AGO

Somalia faces aid crisis, says UN

Many of those displaced in the fighting are women and children

The UN has warned of a humanitarian disaster in Somalia, as fighting continues between insurgents and government-backed Ethiopian forces.

More than 200,000 people have fled their homes amid ongoing clashes in the capital, Mogadishu, the UN said.

Aid workers say the city is inhabited only by fighters and men protecting the remains of their property.

At least 20 people have been killed in the latest clashes, with artillery being used in residential areas.

The clashes made it hard to deliver aid to the displaced, the UN says.

Most people lacked food and water and hundreds had already died from cholera and diarrhoea, UN humanitarian co-ordinator Eric Laroche said.

"It is time that we get access to the people in Mogadishu," he said.

'Aid blocked'

The renewed fighting in Mogadishu comes after at least 20 people were killed on Thursday after an Ethiopian convoy was mined 20km from Mogadishu on the southern road to Afgooye.

Eyewitnesses said there had also been a big explosion at an Ethiopian army complex south of the city.

Eyewitnesses say a troop carrier was mined in the attack

Correspondents say it is not known what triggered the fighting in the city on Thursday morning.

"Six consecutive missiles hit... There are many wounded," said Hassan Ibrahim, as he drove a minibus full of the wounded to a hospital.

The shelling was centred around the central presidential palace, the former defence ministry and a former secondary school in the north.

An eyewitness who saw the explosion at the Ethiopian army base told the BBC Somali service the rising debris and smoke looked like a "flying mountain".

He said people fleeing the area told him that after the blast Ethiopian troops started firing at people passing by; bodies are reported to be strewn along the street.

The insurgents are believed to be a mixture of Islamist fighters and militiamen from the Hawiye clan - the largest in Mogadishu.

Ethiopia helped government forces oust Islamists from Mogadishu last December but violence has intensified after the relative calm when the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) ran the city.

BBC East Africa correspondent Adam Mynott says the displaced are living scattered across southern and central Somalia in appalling conditions.

There are also claims that the transitional government has blocked aid from getting to some of those who need it.

Somalia has not had an effective national government for 16 years.

Last month, more than 1,000 people were killed in the heaviest fighting sine 1991.

The Ethiopian troops have started to withdraw, to be replaced by an African Union peacekeeping force.

But only 1,200 troops, of the 8,000 the AU says it needs, have been deployed.

Original article posted here.

Deja Vu all over again: Once again breaking everything we touch

Bodies dragged, burned as Mogadishu battles rage

MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuters) -- Somali insurgents dragged soldiers' bodies through the streets of Mogadishu before burning them on Wednesday in heavy fighting that killed at least 13 people and injured scores more, witnesses said.

The corpses of five soldiers -- either from the Somali government army or their Ethiopian allies -- were desecrated during some of the worst clashes in the lawless capital since the interim government took over in December, witnesses said.

In one place, men dragged two semi-naked corpses by the feet while members of a crowd chanting "God is Great" kicked and pelted them with stones, a Reuters reporter said.
Scene similar to aftermath of Black Hawk downing

In another, three bodies were hauled round by rope, kicked and then also set alight, witnesses said.

The grisly scenes recalled the aftermath of the 1993 shooting-down of a Black Hawk helicopter by Somali militiamen during a failed U.S. operation to hunt down warlords.

Images of dead American troops being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu were the beginning of the end for a U.S.-U.N. peacekeeping force which quit Somalia in 1995.

As well as the five soldiers, witnesses and medical sources said at least eight civilians died in Wednesday's clashes.

The fighting, which wounded at least 65 people according to hospital staff, began early in the day when insurgents fired at Ethiopian and government forces in tanks and was still raging in the afternoon, residents said.
'I saw an old man die in front of me'

"I have never seen or experienced the kind of fighting that I saw today. People were running in all directions. I saw an old man die in front of me," said Faduma Elmi, 80.

After being attacked, the tanks responded with four cannon shots, they said. The Ethiopians also fired rockets at Mogadishu stadium where residents said some insurgents had dug in.

The interim government took over Mogadishu in late December during a brief war in which it and Ethiopia routed a militant Islamist group that ruled most of south Somalia since mid-2006.

Many believe the defeated Islamists, along with disgruntled clan and warlord militiamen, are behind regular hit-and-run attacks. In most cases, the attacks prompt retaliatory fire and civilians are often the victims of the crossfire.
African Union forces seen as invaders

The fighting initially broke out near a government base in the former defense ministry. Insurgents have repeatedly struck at government and Ethiopian soldiers based there.

This government is the 14th attempt at establishing central rule since warlords ended it by toppling dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, ushering in an era of anarchy and violence.

African Union peacekeepers from Uganda are trying to help the government gain control of the anarchic Horn of Africa nation. Like the Ethiopians, they are viewed as foreign invaders by many Somalis and are therefore also targeted.

Paddy Ankunda, AU mission spokesman, said the Ugandan soldiers were not involved in Wednesday's fighting. "It has not affected the three areas we are in," he said, referring to Mogadishu's airport, seaport and presidential palace.

Ethiopia denied its soldiers were among the five dragged through the streets. "That is categorically false," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ambassador Solomon Abede.

Original article posted here.

African Patsies and Psy Ops Fantasies (Pssst: Al CIAda is not what they tell you)

U.S. hunted al Qaeda suspects from Ethiopia: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military used bases inside Ethiopia last month in a quiet campaign to capture or kill top al Qaeda leaders in the Horn of Africa, The New York Times reported on its Web site on Thursday, citing U.S. officials.

The Times said the campaign included the use of an airstrip in eastern Ethiopia to conduct air strikes against Islamic militants in neighboring Somalia.

Officials were quoted as saying the clandestine relationship with Ethiopia also included significant information-sharing on the militants' positions and information from U.S. spy satellites with the Ethiopian military, the newspaper reported.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to discuss details of the operation with the Times, but the paper said some officials agreed to provide specifics because they considered it an relative success story. They said the campaign disrupted terrorist networks in Somalia and led to the death or capture of several Islamic militants.

The mission was in support of Ethiopian troops' recent drive to enter Somalia to help the government oust the militant Islamist movement.

According to the Times, Washington resisted an official endorsement of the Ethiopian invasion, but U.S. officials from several agencies said the Bush administration decided last year an incursion was the best way to remove the Islamists from power.

The dead and captured does not yet include some al Qaeda leaders such as Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam, whom the United States has hunted for their suspected roles in the attacks on the Kenya and Tanzania embassies in 1998.

The sharing of battlefield intelligence on the Islamists' positions was a result of an Ethiopian request to Gen. John Abizaid, then the commander of the U.S. Central Command. John Negroponte, then the director of national intelligence, also authorized spy satellites to be diverted to provide information to Ethiopia, officials told the Times.

The secret operation in the Horn of Africa is an example of a more aggressive approach the Pentagon has taken to send Special Operations troops to hunt high-level terrorism suspects. President George W. Bush gave the Pentagon powers after the September 11 attacks to carry out such missions, the report said.

The newspaper said that Ethiopian troops have received U.S. training for counterterrorism operations for several years in camps near the Somalia border.

Original article posted here.

Moron Bush's African Adventure: Another Failure in the Making

The New Somalia: A Grimly Familiar Rerun

Abukar Albadri/European Pressphoto Agency

Somalis are fleeing Mogadishu, heading to villages where there is no government, but at least no warfare.

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb. 20 — Fierce mortar attacks killed at least 15 civilians in Somalia on Tuesday, and for a country that had seemed on the verge of ending 16 years of chaotic violence this is the new status quo.

Nearly every day, government forces and insurgents shell each other across Mogadishu’s already dilapidated neighborhoods, scattering bodies and any remaining traces of hope. Gun prices are soaring and more clans are joining the underground, while an outbreak of cholera sweeps the countryside.

“To tell you the truth, I’m pretty worried,” said Mohammed Ali Mahdi, a top clan elder. When the government came to Mogadishu, “I felt we were going the right way. Unfortunately, that’s not the case anymore and soon it’s going to be too late.”

It is hard to believe, but Somalia is actually becoming a more violent and chaotic place. That is not how it was supposed to be. Nearly two months ago, an internationally-supported transitional government ousted the Islamist forces and steamed into Mogadishu, the capital, with great expectations. But confidence in the government — never very high — is rapidly bleeding away.

Somalia seems to be just shy of total collapse — again — because the Ethiopian troops who provided the muscle to throw out the Islamists are withdrawing, yet none of the peacekeepers promised from other African countries have arrived.

Hundreds of families are streaming out of Mogadishu, hoisting mattresses on their backs and following pitted roads to villages where there is no electricity, medicine or even the faintest hint of government, but at least no warfare. At least, not yet.

“We can’t stand the shelling anymore,” said Hassan Mohammed, a father of four, who was headed to a village in the south.

There was a burst of optimism beginning Dec. 28, when government troops, with Ethiopian firepower behind them, marched into Mogadishu and planted the hope that the anarchy was ending. Cheering crowds poured into ruined streets. Aid experts in Nairobi circulated ambitious reconstruction plans. Ethiopian and American officials, who had worked together to overthrow the Islamists, breathed a mutual sigh of relief.

But what has happened in the past few weeks has killed that mood. A deadly insurgency has started, beginning with a few clans connected to the Islamists and now expanding to several more. Many government troops refuse to get involved. “We’re not going out there,” said Dahir Hassan, a police captain, from the confines of his police station. “If we get hurt, who’s going to take care of us?”

All analysts agree that the violence will continue and probably intensify unless the government reconciles with clan leaders, who control, as much as anyone controls, what happens in Somalia.

But so far, there’s been very little of that. Instead of reaching out to truly influential figures, analysts say the government has picked ministers not because they have any substantial support among their clans but because they will do the government’s bidding. The result is an increasingly isolated, authoritarian and unpopular government in which the transitional president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, is accused of behaving more like a clan warlord — which he was — than a national leader.

“Where this government is heading is so far from where the international community wants it to go,” said Ali Iman Sharmarke, one of the owners of the HornAfrik radio station in Mogadishu.

A common complaint is that the transitional government — transitional being the operative word — is not working itself out of a job as promised. Donor nations agreed to pay the salaries of Somali officials with the understanding that those men and handful of women would shepherd the country to democratic elections in 2009. But there has been almost no progress toward setting up an election commission, let alone taking a census. Many Somalis say they would be more inclined to support, or at least tolerate, the transitional government if they thought it was indeed transitional.

To be fair, ruling Somalia, which has not had a functioning central government since 1991, is no easy task. Thirteen previous governments have been formed and 13 previous governments have failed.

Abdirahman Dinari, the government’s chief spokesman, said the criticism about the government’s selection of ministers was just an excuse. “These people wouldn’t be happy with anyone in power,” he said, conceding that the government, on its own, did not have the skills to pull the country together. “We need help.”

But Mr. Dinari said help had been slow to arrive, partly because international organizations were spending millions of dollars on a staff based in Kenya, which is deemed a much safer place to work, instead of investing those resources in Somalia.

But many say that argument rings hollow. Security in Somalia does not depend on foreign troops or foreign aid. At least, it never has. In the early 1990s, the United States and the United Nations poured hundreds of millions of dollars into stabilizing Somalia and they failed notoriously, leaving the country as capriciously violent and hopeless as ever.

Then along came the Islamists, who during their six-month reign last year pacified the hornet’s nest of Mogadishu by persuading clans to voluntarily disarm their militias and persuading Somalis, most of whom are Sunni Muslims, to buy into their Islam-is-the-answer solution.

One Western diplomat laughed when asked if a modest force of peacekeepers — the African Union is proposing around 8,000 — could deliver the level of stability that the Islamists had delivered on their own.

“No way,” he said, speaking anonymously under diplomatic rules. “And the government’s urgency for peacekeepers shows you just how badly they’ve done with reconciliation.”

Mohammed Ibrahim and Yuusuf Maxamuud contributed reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia.

Original article posted here.

Destroying Everything We Touch

Somalia declares state of emergency

BAIDOA, Somalia (Reuters) -- Somalia's parliament declared on Saturday a three-month state of emergency amid fears of a return of clan violence after weeks of war ousted Islamists.

Members of parliament in the government's interim seat of Baidoa -- its home until Ethiopian and Somali troops defeated Islamists who controlled much of the south, voted 154 to two to ratify Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's plan.

The government, which is seeking to install itself in the capital Mogadishu, faces a huge challenge to bring peace and security to the Horn of Africa nation, which has been without effective central rule since the 1991 ouster of a dictator.

"A three-month state of emergency has been passed. If the need arises for the government to extend the period then the president will have to ask parliament for approval," second deputy speaker Osman Elmi Boqore told parliament.

Residents fear Mogadishu could slide back into the anarchy that has gripped the city since 1991.

On Friday, warlord gunmen tried to force their way inside the presidential palace and fought Somali troops, showing how hard it will be to tame the nation.

The shootout which killed a handful of people and came as warlords agreed to merge their forces into a new national army, was the kind of clash that was commonplace in Mogadishu.

Within hours of the Islamists fleeing Mogadishu, militiamen loyal to the warlords reappeared at checkpoints in the city where they used to terrorise civilians.

The government welcomed the vote.

"Since the country is facing a hard time, we believe the emergency law will play a crucial role in bringing back peace and in the reconstruction of our country," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters.

The government is seeking to disarm the capital's residents but few weapons have been handed in as locals wait to see whether the government can impose the relative stability they experienced under the Islamists' sharia rule.
Islamist stronghold captured

Earlier, government forces captured a southern Islamist stronghold and Ethiopian planes pounded the area. Many fugitive Islamists were believed to be in the coastal village of Ras Kamboni near the Kenyan border after fleeing south.

"The government took over the last Islamist stronghold of Ras Kamboni yesterday evening after fighting in the morning," Dinari said.

"Most of the wanted terrorists have either died or fled. They are hiding in the forests ... Government forces are still chasing them. We will not stop the chase until we are sure they are totally eliminated."

Washington sent a warplane into Somalia on Monday to try to kill top al Qaeda suspects and Ethiopian aircraft have struck the area for days to finish a war that began before Christmas.

"Ethiopian troops are engaged in a mopping up operation against the remnants of the terrorist group around Ras Kamboni," Ethiopian Information Ministry spokesman Zemedhun Tekle said.

Speaking from the southern Kismayu port, lawmaker Abdirashid Mohammed Hidig, also acting government leader for the area where operations were being launched, said Ethiopian planes were striking sites where "the Islamists are believed to be hiding."

Hidig said U.S. forces were on the ground but were not involved in any fighting although he had not seen them. A senior U.S. official told Reuters this week he was not aware of any American special forces in Somalia.

British-based aid agency Oxfam said air raids to pursue Islamists in southern Somalia had mistakenly killed 70 nomadic herdsmen. While some Somali sources have reported scores of deaths, there has been no independent confirmation. Both Ethiopia and the United States deny hitting civilians.

Washington's strike was its first overt military involvement in Somalia since a disastrous peacekeeping mission in 1994.

It killed up to 10 al Qaeda allies, but missed its main target of three top suspects, the U.S. government said. Washington denies carrying out any further strikes.

Ethiopia, the region's major power, wants to withdraw in coming weeks its soldiers who have been attacked in Mogadishu.

Diplomats fear that would leave the government -- the 14th attempt at central rule since 1991 -- vulnerable to remnant Islamists vowing guerrilla war, warlords seeking to re-create their fiefdoms, and competing clans.

Original article posted here.

When you can never have enough enemies

Somalia : another war "Made in USA "

Global Research, January 10, 2007

INTERVIEW OF MOHAMED HASSAN

This is not a war between Ethiopia and Somalia . This is a war of the USA against all the peoples of the Horn of Africa.

Analysis by Mohamed Hassan

To understand what is happening in the Horn of Africa, the nature of the TPLF-regime of Zenawi Meles in Ethiopia that sent its troops into Somalia last month must first be explained.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) was created in 1975. In its first manifesto it said its main objective was to create the Independent republic of Tigray. This is a narrow nationalist and racist approach that makes language the first factor to unite or divide people. There was opposition to this narrow vision within the TPLF itself as well as within the other organisations and fronts that fought against the Mengistu regime, the dictatorship of that time.

The mainstream idea was that Tigray was part of Ethiopia and there was no reason to claim independence for Tigray. The main objective for the liberation struggle in Ethiopia was to create a new Ethiopia based on equality of nationalities and brotherly relations with all neighboring countries. After 50 years of war this very rich region inhabited by poor people desired a new start and the beginning of a developing economy.

Zenawi Meles is a great demagogue and a liar. He uses Marxism-Leninism today and tomorrow he will use Buddhism. The day after he will read a few books and be the champion of Hinduism against Buddhism. He hid his narrow Tigray-nationalist agenda of TPLF and created the Marxist Leninist League of Tigray to gain control of the TPLF and eliminate all opposition against his narrow racist ideology within it.

In the eighties when the struggle against the Mengistu dictatorship became stronger he also created the EPRDFF which was a larger front of different organisations representing different nationalities living in Ethiopia , under the leadership of the TPLF. Meles pretended to unite Ethiopian nationalities in the struggle for the liberation of Ethiopia, but all the time its real objective was the creation of a greater Tigray, that controls the other nationalities and regions in Ethiopia.

Once the Mengistu-regime fell, a transitional government was formed. The EPLF (Eritrean People Liberation Front) from te neighboring country Eritrea that was occupied by Ethiopia, convinced all the other organisations who were members of this government that it was better to give military control of the country to the army of TPLF. When Zenawi saw that in the regional elections of 1992 the Omore liberation front won they began eliminating its members from the government and the OLF left the government. Instead of following a policy of integration of the different nationalities, Zenawi followed a policy of "divide and rule" against all the other nationalities in Ethiopia

Today Zenawi's unbelievably narrow and reactionary dream of "a greater Tigray" has become reality. The population of Tigray is only 6% of the Ethiopian population (76 million) and Tigray is a poor region, situated at 800 km from the capital Addis Ababa. But it is Tigray-people who control 99% of public services and 98% of trade.

All opposition and protest is brutally repressed and the rule of the TPLF/EPRDF is maintained by narrow racist nationalist policies that divide the different Ethiopian nationalities.

In reality this is a very dangerous situation first of all for the Tigray people itself. I know many people from Tigray who have lived their whole lives in Addis Ababa and who flee the country, because they fell themselves more and more hated each day by their neighbors of whom the overwhelming majority are non Tigray.

At the same time the regime is very weak and depends completely on the support of the USA .

The May 2005 elections were a big defeat for the EPRDF. The official results published a month after the elections put the EPRDF in a minority position of 45%. The EU observers confirmed the defeat of the EPRDF. However the official election committee did an "investigation" and finally gave 60% to the EPRDF. The leaders of the main opposition parties were put in jail and many people were killed.

In the past year, the opposition inside Ethiopia has become more radical. In August 2006, a group of high-ranking officers led by General Kamal Galchuu joined the Oromo Liberation Front. In the Orome area a real intifadah started up and a few months ago, the OLF launched an appeal to all opposition groups to join the united front ADF (Alliance for Democracy and Freedom).

The USA is pleased with the situation because this way it has a puppet that completely depends on its financial, political and military support. The Ethiopian state is becoming more and more a CIA-led state that is very isolated.

The conflict with Eritrea.

In fact the military capacity of the EPRDF in the eighties was relatively weak. It was its close relationship with the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) that was militarily strong that made victory over the dictator Mengisthu in 1991 possible. It was the troops of the EPLF that liberated the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. But the EPLF was a liberation movement of a neighboring country, Eritrea, that had been occupied by Ethiopia since 1952 and was annexed in 1962. And the objective of the EPRF was to liberate Eritrea from the Ethiopian occupation. So it formed a close alliance with the EPRDF/TPLF to topple the Ethiopian government. Once this was done, the EPLF took over the administration of Eritrea and organized in Eritrea a referendum in 1993 where more then 98% of Eritreans voted for independence. While in Ethiopia a transitional government was formed led by EPRDF/TPLF.

The EPLF held on to its ideals of a liberation movement that wanted to develop its country for the interest of its people. So it followed a policy based upon self-reliance, mobilising the population, installing national structures, refusing outside interference via Western NGOs and controlling foreign trade. The EPLF also followed a policy based on national integration and cohabitation of the 9 Eritrean nationalities and the two religions (Christian and Muslim).

This was just the opposite of the policy Zenawi followed in Ethiopia that was based on privatisation, foreign donors and the policy of International institutions such as the IMF and the WB. Confronted with this difference, Eritrea decided in 1997 to stop using the Ethiopian pound and chose to have its own currency, the Nakfa.

From then on, there were many provocative acts and killings of Eritrean officers and soldiers at the border that triggered off a war, which lasted from 1998 to 2000. It was a catastrophic war; on the Ethiopian side 135.000 soldiers died. In fact the Ethiopians lost the war and were forced to accept the Algiers agreement in 2000.

The agreement included three phases: 1. A commission of the International Court in The Hague would decide on the territorial dispute and the exact location of the border. 2. Another commission of the International Court would decide on the claims of the two parties for confiscation or damage to property of citizens thate were confiscated by the other side. 3. Finally a commission of the African Union would decide on the question which country started the war and should have the responsibility to compensate for the immense damage that was caused by the war. The two first commissions have already concluded in favor of the Eritrean position and claims. It is almost certain that the third commission will condemn Ethiopia, because the Ethiopian government accused Eritrea of starting the war by an air-attack against the city of Adi-Grat and occupying the village Badima. This story of Eritrean jets bombing this city was a lie; once the commission examines this story, the truth will be crystal clear. What is more: the first commission already decided that Badima was Eritrean territory.

So there is a sword of Damocles hanging above the government of Zenawi Meles. Until now the African Union, under pressure from the USA, postponed the foundation of the third commission. But sooner or later, this third commission will be formed.

The very risky war against Somalia

The extremely fragile position of the Meles-regime can explain its offensive to attack Somalia last December. Indeed, by attacking Somalia under pretext of attacking "the allies and even members of Al Qaeda" Zenawi wants to position himself as a friend of the U.S. and Bush's strong man in the Horn of Africa in the US global war against Islamic terror. But this is a very risky operation.

First of all, Ethiopia and Somalia have had a long history of animosity and wars. For the Somalis the Ethiopian invasion is an aggression of an archenemy. It could be compared to a military intervention by Germany in Belgium or France. Somalis are one people, have one language and one religion. The only factor that is dividing them is the clans. Confronted with a foreign occupation force, however, they can unite and deal heavy blows. It was the Americans themselves who experienced this in 1993. At that moment they had sent 30.000 marines to the country in a military operation called "Restore Hope". But soon they had to withdraw because of their losses and the fact that the dead corpses of American soldiers were dragged through the streets in front of the cameras.

Second, the Somali people are tired of the chaos and destruction of 16 years of a warlord regime. However it is just the same warlords who have been protected and brought to power again in Mogadishu by the Ethiopian army. The warlords were hated before by all Somalis for their corruption. Now they will be despised as traitors and stooges for the number one enemy of the Somali people, Ethiopia.

Third, The overwhelming majority of Somalis saw the Islamic Courts as a stabilizing factor. This support of the Islamic Courts was not a support for international terrorists. Most jihadists do not speak Somali and few speak Arabic. They stand out too much with their different eating habits and clothing. When the population helped the Islamic Courts to defeat the warlords in a few weeks time and then to liberate practically the whole country in six months, it was because they were tired of the anarchy, the pillage of the warlords. You must know that since 1991, 3 million Somalis have left the country and the Somali diaspora are often modern secular people who try to help their country in spite of the warlords' corruption. And they are very ingenious at doing that. For example, in spite of all the chaos, Somalia is one of the only African countries where every village has good telephone communication facilities. There is an informal banking system (1 billion $ a year). There are five private airways and so on. A large number of Diaspora Somalis were willing to return to Somalia, and rebuild the country, once peace and security were ensured. When Somali businessmen went to the American embassy in Nairobi to invite them to come to Somalia and see for themselves that there were no Al Qaeda members in the Islamic Courts, the Americans refused. They will never forget nor forgive the USA and their puppet Ethiopia for bringing Somalia back to the reign of terror and chaos of the warlords. And in their eyes it is crystal clear that the talk about Al Qaeda's presence in Somalia is nothing else then the excuse, the lie that must justify the war. Just like the lies about the weapons of mass destruction of Saddam used to justify the aggression against Iraq .

Fourth, all Somalis are aware of the fact that in the sixteen years of anarchic rule by the warlords, there was never any initiative of the "International Community" to intervene in Somalia. However, just when the Islamic courts brought order and stability, they saw in November last year the UN Security council under the instigation of the USA vote the resolution 1752 that opened the door for the Ethiopian intervention that brought back the terror and anarchy they had just chased away. So the only way the common Somali can see this invasion is that of an aggression against the Somali people and nation.

Fifth, The invading soldiers of Zenawi in Somalia are largely from his Tigray Christian tribe. These soldiers do not speak the Somali language; once deep inside Somalia, they will be exposed to attacks by the locals. But also in Ethiopia itself, Zenawi needs these men back as soon as possible because he needs them to confront the growing revolt in his own country. It is true; the Americans are negotiating with Uganda and Nigeria to deliver 8000 troops to replace the Ethiopian army. But who will pay for this operation and will these poor governments take the risk of being sucked into the swamp of a guerilla war? Certainly the different neighboring countries such as Kenya and Uganda take high risks because there are many Somali refugees living in Kenya who will not forget nor forgive a Kenyan engagement on the side of Ethiopia.. The Ugandan economy largely depends on the Kenyan harbor of Mombassa, but 30 km of this harbor there is a city Lamui where Somalis are in the majority... So it may well be that Zenawi's troops will be forced to stay too long in Somalia and that they will be sucked into a swamp that will be fatal for the TPLF/regime.

What is the role of the Americans in this war?

The Zenawi regime is a rogue force used in the hands of American imperialism in the region. Since Antony Lake, Clinton's national security advisor, indicated Ethiopia as one of the four countries (the others were Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt) that are decisive for the defense of American interests in Africa, the government of Zenawi has had all the support it needed.

The Ethiopian army is at present being reformed as a local mercenary force in the service of the Americans that can be used against any country in the region. On one of the American army's websites, Stars and Stripes (http://www.estripes.com/), one could read on 30 December the testimony of one of the sixty American instructors who are training Ethiopian soldiers. Sgt. 1st Class Bill Flippo is an instructor based at Camp Hurso near in the city of Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. He says; "I feel that what I'm doing now is really helping to fight the war on terror," Flippo said. "The knowledge we are giving to these soldiers is what they will use if they go and fight in Somalia, Eritrea or wherever."

Many observers note that the invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia was not only encouraged, and protected by the USA , but even paid by USA-money. And after the first successes, American military participated directly with the Ethiopian army in the hunt for leaders of the Islamic courts.

What are the American interests in the region?

There is the presence of oil and gas reserves. Since 1986, four big oil transnational corporations received permission for the first time from the Somalian president Siad Barre to search for oil. And they found important reserves. But most of all : Somalia has a very strategic location. It has a coast of 3300km. This is the largest coastline in Africa. One part of this coastline is just in front of the most important region in the world for the moment, the Middle East. Another part of the coastline faces the Indian Ocean. You must know that before the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century, there was considerable traffic between India and Africa that passed by harbors on this coast. 10% of the words of the Somali language are words of Indian origin.

The Emir of the Indian State of Kudjrad had bodyguards that came from the Horn of Africa. In the Somali harbors there were also Somali who spoke Chinese. They were called "Abanas". They were translators between the Chinese and businessmen from the African hinterland.

This century the historical wheel is turning again towards the emerging countries of China and India . Chalmers Johnson, author and president of the Japan Policy Research Institute, cites Javed Burki, a former vice-president of the World Bank's China Department who predicts that by 2025 China will probably have a GDP of $25 trillion in terms of purchasing power parity and will have become the world's largest economy followed by the US at $ 20 trillion. (http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=2259)

This year we also saw important efforts from China to increase its trade with Africa . China urgently needs oil and other minerals for its rapidly developing economy. And Africa can respond to that need. So the Horn of Africa has become a very strategic place for the next twenty years.

Since the Bush-government cannot control the whole world, they prefer a policy of deliberately destabilizing the whole region for many years, rather than letting it become a wealthy region that can play a key-role in the increasing trade relations between Africa and the new emerging economies of Asia .

There are Somalis living in different neighboring countries such as Ethiopia , Kenya , Djibouti . Somali nationalism has ignited and this war will extend into places like Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya, known until now mostly as a safari destination for Western tourists.

The peoples of the region are becoming mature. They see what is happening and their first reaction is that of horror. If the Bush agenda of destabilizing and genocide continues, anti-imperialist feelings will increase and people will unite to defend their homes and countries.

Mohamed Hassan is the son of a member of the resistance against the regime of emperor Haile Selasie. He is an indepdent writer on Middle Eastern and African politics.

Original article posted here.