By Yassin Ismail, Kent UK

Nearly one thousand Somali civilians, including women and children have been killed in Mogadishu following 4 day of heavy fighting between the Ethiopian troops supporting the TFG and insurgents belonging to the Hawiye clan, in what the observers described an indiscriminate massacre against an ethnically defined people. The fighting also caused the displacement of tens of thousands of innocent civilians who fled their homes due to the indiscriminate shelling of Ethiopians troops on many heavily populated areas of the capital using helicopter gunships and other sophisticated artillery barrages.

Some humanitarian agencies in the area estimated the death toll amongst the civilians to be in excess of 700 and still rising. The scale and the magnitude of the bombardment as well as the indiscriminate nature of Ethiopia’s artillery shelling angered Somalis far and near and efforts are already underway in Europe to investigate the alleged war crimes, which could implicate not only the TFG and Ethiopia but also the EU, US and EGAD member countries for their respective roles in providing support to the Ethiopian troops and the TFG at the war.

The Hawiye clan leaders claimed the indiscriminate killing of their civilians is a vengeful retaliation by Abdillahi Yusuf’s predominantly Darod backed TFG Government with the military support of by Ethiopia and the financial backing of the USA to get even with the Hawiye.

Both the US and Ethiopia are said to have an own vendetta against the Hawiye clan, particularly the US who still holds the grudges of the 1994 defeat of the US Rangers in Mogadishu following violent and bloody encounters with the Hawiye clan militia during a peacekeeping operation in Mogadishu, which subsequently inspired the Hollywood movie called Blackhawk Down.

The failure of the US-led humanitarian intervention in Somalia in 1994, known as ‘Operation Restore Hope’, -[or as many people know it the Battle of ‘Blackhawk Down,’] - had been an enormous embarrassment for the US military: - one that has left a gashing scar on the pride and prestige of America’s military might and has demystified the invincibility of the US Rangers.

Evidence from the Pentagon shows that the US has never buried the grudges of their humiliating defeat in Mogadishu. On the contrary, the US Rangers failure in Mogadishu has prompted the Pentagon to review its defense strategies.

When Bill Clinton took from George Bush senior, the Pentagon proposed new defense strategic goals redefining the role of the US military in the post-Cold War world. According to the official document containing the Pentagon’s proposed changes to the then existing US Defense strategies, which was obtained by critics as it leaked from the Pentagon, it was claimed that “..American strategies for the coming decades should seek to consolidate the great victories won in the 20 th century, - which has made Germany and Japan into stable democracies, - for example, maintain stability for the Middle East, while setting conditions for the 21 st century success.”

The document or the Proposal which is also known as ‘the New American Century’ , [ The official title of the document is: ‘Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century] -, continues to lament America’s military embarrassment in Mogadishu in 1994 as its core argument for making changes to its post-Cold War defense priorities, saying “retreat from any one of these requirements should call America’s status as the world’s leading power into question.” It went on “…As we have seen even a small failure like that we have seen in Somalia or a halting and incomplete triumph as in the Balkans can cast doubt on America’s credibility.”

If you want to read this document in its entirety here is a link to the original text [http://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf]

This suggests that the Americans have never taken lightly the images of their dead soldiers being dragged in Mogadishu streets as was shown on international TV stations by angry Somalis.

An elderly man of the Hawiye clan I have interviewed while researching this article told me, “the US, being the most powerful country in the world, to behave this way, seeking vengeance against a people of certain defined ethnic suggests that America has never buried the hatches of their vendetta against the Hawiye clan over the so-called battle of Blackhawk Down.” Another, a student at the Imperial University of London who also belongs to the Hawiye clan, called the US “a mindless Godzilla with all characteristic behaviors and mentality of reptilian animal.”

The fact that the world’s only super power is now being implicated in accusations of encouraging ‘ethnic cleansing’ is a serious allegation. But another official US policy document suggests that the US had long decided to exploit the religious and ethnic differences of the Horn of Africa as a way to bringing Africans at loggerheads with one another. The Introduction of the Greater Horn of Africa Initiative by the US State Department is a good example of such policies.

In line with the proposed changes to the America’s new strategic defense goals and in continuation of Bush’s futile attempt to test the New World Order on Somalia’s failed state, the Clinton administration introduced a set of different strategic foreign policies each one applicable to a certain nations or group of nations within a particular geographical area.

The Greater Horn of Africa Initiative (GHAI) was the product of number of expert think-tank organizations, who advice the US government on strategic policy making issues. Whether ill-advised or otherwise, the US State Department has approved the devising of a new set of Foreign Policy Directives in relation to at least 11 countries in the Horn of Africa and Greater Horn of Africa Initiative was born.

The logo of the US Department’s GHAI program

The ‘Greater Horn of Africa Initiative, GHAI’ is a US State Department approved policy aimed at 11 countries in East Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan as far as down south Burundi and Rwanda.

According to these new US Foreign policy directives, Washington has chosen Meles Zenawi as their man in the Horn of Africa and even explained the reasons why they felt he is the right man for the job, fit and competent to represent US interests in the region and hence do all the necessary ‘dirty work’ for the US in terms of implementing any political and military tasks that the US wishes to have it done in the region. In an attempt to justify Meles Zenawi as their choice, a US Congregational Committee were told that, “Ethiopia’s image as a Marxist military beset by starvation and political turmoil is a thing of the past.” and continued, “The new Ethiopia is a model of democracy and partner in the region of our interests ….and its geographical position provides a bulwark to fight the growing Islamic extremist forces in Somalia and Sudan.”

In 1996, Meles Zenawi carried out his first US sponsored military assignment when he attacked what he called ‘training bases for Extremist Islamic movements’ in Somalia. The news earned him favors from Washington but later it was confirmed by independent journalists that all the targets that had been attacked by Ethiopian troops were Madarasas offering alternative education to young people in the absence of proper schooling system in Somalia due to lack of central government.

The document praises Meles Zenawi’s efforts and in accordance he was officially entered into the America’s payroll system as the US confirmed it picked up the bill of that operation with a thumps up gesture to Mr. Zenawi.

Since then Meles Zenawi has been actively involved in the Somali politics and supported different warlords at times in order to bring them at loggerheads with one another to ensure Somalia continues to remain in ruins for as long as the US and Ethiopia’s interests are primarily served in setting the principles of any peace and reconciliation initiative aimed to revive Somalia from the anarchy and self-destruction. It is widely believed among the Somalis that the Prime Minster of Ethiopia has been the chief architect of the problems faced by the Transitional Government that resulted from the Arta Peace process, which eventually led to its demise.

Having derailed the Arta peace process, Meles Zenawi’s next task was to inspire the holding of a next Somali peace reconciliation under the auspices of Kenya and very much remained in the background. This was not only a showcase of Ethiopia’s political power in direct defiance of Djibouti’s ideals of bringing Somalia back into being. For Egypt it was a frustrating situation. Egypt’s unreserved efforts to promote the unified state of Somalia fell short of predicting the anti-Arab influence that Ethiopia exerted on the TFG. With their relationship with Somaliland already in tatters due to lack of lack of understanding and closer working relations with Somaliland meant that Egypt lost its grip on Somalia and Somaliland.

Email: yassinismail@aol.com

Home | Contact us | Links | Archives