Djibouti ’s Support For Terrorists Is A Danger To The U.S And The Horn

EDITORIAL

Because of the urgency of the situation, right after September 11, the United States entered into anti-terrorism agreements with some countries of dubious record. There is increasing evidence, however, that some of those agreements which seemed reasonably justified at the time have produced some negative and dangerous results. A case in point is the tiny country of Djibouti which is literally getting away with murder. How so? Consider this: Djibouti receives 30 million dollars annually from the United States for allowing the US to base anti-terrorism military forces on Djibouti’s soil. But at the same time that Djibouti takes US money and weapons, it also provides money and weapons to the terrorist courts of Mogadishu.

The strong links between Djibouti and the Islamic Courts of Mogadishu is no secret. It was confirmed by the United Nations. As far back as March this year, before the Islamic Courts took over Mogadishu, Djibouti hosted a delegation from Aydh (or Ayr), who are the backbone of the terrorist Courts, and their propagandist Professor Abdi Samatar who currently resides in Minnesota.

On October of this year, one of the top leaders of the Islamic Courts, Col. Hassan Dahir Aweys, went on a visit to Djibouti.

This week alone, the Speaker of Somalia’s powerless government, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan who heads a faction of parliamentarians that has broken away from the rest of that so-called government, and who is now close to the Islamic Courts, has just come back from Djibouti. The same airplane that brought the pro-Islamic Courts speaker to Mogadishu, took a seven-member delegation of the terrorist courts back to Djibouti. It was reported that the delegation was led by the Chief Executive of the Islamic Courts, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and included Ibrahim Hassan Ado, Omar Iman Abu Bakr and Gen. Jama Mohamed Ghalib. At the airport, Sheikh Sharif thanked Djibouti for its efforts in scuttling the US plan to remove the arms embargo on Somalia.

Djibouti often tries to give a legitimate cover to its pro-terrorist activities by making it seem part of IGAD’s efforts to bring peace and reconciliation to Somalia. But only someone who is extremely naïve and uninformed could be hoodwinked by such stratagem. Therefore, the question remains: why is the U.S giving millions of dollars in cash and weapons to Djibouti when it knows (or should know) that some of that money and arms are being funneled to terrorists who are using it against the United States?

Someone might ask: why should we, in Somaliland, be concerned about what Djibouti does with the arms and money it gets from the U.S? The answer to this last question is: because the terrorist courts are a danger not only to the United States, but also to Somaliland.

Since the US policy towards Djibouti is having a harmful effect on Somaliland, it is incumbent on Somalilanders to ask the United States to rectify that policy.

Source: Somaliland Times

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