Departments
A perspective on relations with Somalia
by IGC
January 4, 2008
By all standards, the situation unfolding in Somalia is horrifically grim, and according
to the UN, it is the worst crisis in Africa; worse than the crisis in Darfur that
outraged the world’s conscience in an unprecedented way.
However, unlike Darfur, Washington has a role in the creation of this massive humanitarian
crisis and therefore must have a role in rectifying it.
As Washington was claiming to care about winning the “hearts and minds of the Muslim
world” in order to curb the ubiquitous Anti-Americanism around the world, it was
stubbornly pursuing that same ill-tempered foreign policy that considers all
“Islamists”-- euphemistically understood as all Muslims who believe that their religion
is a comprehensive way of life-- potential enemies; that same policy that has proven
miserable failure everywhere it was implemented.
As a result, creepily emerging in the past few months was the nightmare scenario
that many analysts warned against as John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the UN, in
his last days, aggressively pushed for resolutions that would ultimately pave the
way for Ethiopia to invade its neighboring Somalia under the pretext of a preemptive
war to protect its national security and contain “the spread of terrorism”.
And as the mainstream media can no longer disregard the magnitude of the human suffering
in that part of the world, graphic pictures of the grisly effects of a callously
ignored preventable violence and starvation are making their way to the living rooms
of millions of household- an ominous reminiscence of early 1990s.
Civilians fleeing Mogadishu’s brutal violence have reached one million in number-
half of the city’s population. These civilians are mainly women and children. And
because they cannot cross over to neighboring countries for safe haven since the
boarders have been closed for almost a year, they became IDPs (Internally Displaced
People). These separate IDPs are deprived of food as almost all aid agencies have
pulled out when they found the continuous harassment by the Transition Federal Government
(TFG) and the Ethiopian occupation forces unbearable. As a result, “malnutrition
rates (is) now reaching 20% among the under 5, way over the UN emergency thresholds”.
Pope Benedict XVI urged global intervention to help end the violence and starvation.
"I am anxiously following developments and I call on those who have political
responsibilities on the local and international levels to seek peaceful solutions
that can bring relief to these people," said the Pontiff. A week earlier, the
European Union passed a resolution that "strongly condemns the serious violations
of human rights committed by all parties to the conflict” and called for "an
independent panel to investigate war crimes and human rights violations”.
Accordingly, these turn of events have compelled Washington to dash for public relations
damage control.
The State Department issued a written statement urging all parties in the Somali
conflict to “ensure unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid to those affected,”
and added that the United States will “remain committed to resolving the ongoing
political and humanitarian crisis in Somalia,” something that Washington has given
adequate lip-service in the past as it stayed on course, following the same foreign
policy blueprint.
However, in an interview with Voice of America, Assistant Secretary of State for
African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, stunned Washington’s critics by asserting that
“the surge in violence in Mogadishu is shared by political extremists as well as
forces of the country's transitional government and the Ethiopian troops
”.
She also added that
“
it is time for Somali moderates to come forward and work to end chronic violence”.
Is this a declaration of policy change? Or perhaps another preemptive strike aimed
to create the impression of positive change that would in turn create media echo
effect that would shape a favorable public opinion?
Unfortunately, the statement, while it may have raised curiosity in certain circles,
rings a bit hollow to those who have been following closely Washington’s deadly
enterprise in Somalia.
If the statement, especially the phrase “Somali moderates”, is a euphemism for those
who would blindly embark on Washington’s haphazard engagement in Somalia (by proxy
or otherwise), disenchantment will inevitably ensue. Why? You guessed it: Washington’s
credibility-deficient foreign policy with its unenviable track record, especially
in the Islamic world.
However, if Dr. Frazer’s statement, which was unique in tone and aspiration, was
a genuine attempt to indicate Washington’s paradigm shift; that it finally came
to the realization that the US long-term strategic interest in the region and that
of Ethiopia are running in a collision course, then the State Department ought to
recognize that it needs to do some plowing before it can harvest any thing.
Washington’s image has been steadily eroding since spring 2006 when ‘Operation Dung
beetle,’ a CIA covert operation that financed some of the most brutal warlords to
hound after the Islamic courts became public news. This subsequently led to the
June 2006 popular uprising that firmly established the Islamic Courts Union (ICU)
and chased the despised warlords out of Mogadishu.
The courts ruled for 6 months that is described as the most peaceful period that
war-torn Somalia has known since the civil war erupted in 1991. Washington viewed
this as a threat and ill-advisedly opted to support the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia
which, in due course, led to the humanitarian and political mayhem at hand.
There are various reports indicating that the courts had a radical element, but
this element was at the fringes of the decision-making process. It was the much
broader moderate base within the ICU that had the popular support. And it was clearly
this latter group that made ‘reaching out to the international community with an
olive branch’ its first priority, and agreed to hold face-to-face talks with the
TFG until the provocatively expanding Ethiopian military presence has disrupted
the process, causing the political rhetoric to heat up, thus setting the stage for
the radical element to step to the front and aggressively make its first deadly
move.
Despite that ill-starred backdrop, Washington still has a chance to rectify its
wrongs and play a constructive role in helping stop the brutal bloodletting in Somalia
by pulling the plug on the Ethiopian occupation and initiating through the UN Security
Council a resolution that would replace them with UN forces instead of the mirage
of the African Union forces. Similar points was argued by Sadia Ali Aden, president
of the Somali Diaspora Network (a group that this author is associated with), in
an on-line debate hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations a few months ago.
“By no means is Washington’s record immaculate. However, the two nations direly
need each other to save one another” said Ms. Aden.
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