Issue 278

As I was surfing the net in search of my daily doze of news about the war back home, which is a routine that became a habit of mine since the arrival of the Ethiopian invaders in Somalia, I came a cross quotes from AFP news agency’s interview with the AU Commissioner, Alpha Oumar Konare on Moday, May 14, 2007. I was deeply shocked and disappointed with the commissioner in particular and the organization in general when I read these quotes. The commissioner said “If Ethiopia withdrew from Somalia today, it would be a catastrophe.” Referring to the AU, he also said “...Ethiopia came to do a job that we should have done.” I thought it was a deep abomination from the commissioner aimed at the Somali people.

In the first quote, the unconcerned commissioner suggests that Somalia cannot survive without the presence of foreign troops in the country but the last unforgettable sixteen years of the country’s history suggests otherwise. I must remind the commissioner that Somalia is the only country in the modern world that has survived sixteen years without a government during which the country effectively managed to successfully develop the best telecommunication system in Africa, world class private schools and universities and traded with the world.

I also must remind the seemingly clueless commissioner that prior the illicit arrival of the Ethiopian invading forces in Somalia, the country had its own home grown grassroots movement that stabilized the country first time in sixteen years without any foreign involvement. Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), although terribly and dangerously politically immature, brought peace and stability to Somalia. In their first two months, they cleaned the streets of Mogadishu, established police stations and brought total security to the city. Citizens of Mogadishu begun to tour the city with their luxury cars they kept in their garages for years for lack of security; they begun to have a family picnics at the beaches and walk on any street and through any alley way at any time of the night without fear of harm.

Expectedly, the Ethiopian military supported by the United Stated both militarily and financially destroyed this newly found peace and stability by invading the country and defeating the UIC. Both countries justified this illegal invasion.

United States accused the courts of having ties with Al-Qaida by allegedly hosting three Al-Qaida operatives in eastern Africa, Sudanese national Abu Talha al-Sudani, Comoran national Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Kenyan national Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. After slaughtering hundreds of innocent civilians in Southern Somalia with AC-130 gunship, US cannot proof the presence of these three individuals in Somalia.

Ethiopian regime told the world that it was taking a proportional counter offensive against what it said was a threat of invasion from the Union of the Islamic Courts of Somalia without any evidence to show such a threat existed. It is undeniable fact that the UIC warned the Ethiopian troops inside Somalia to leave the country or face all out war. Being the authority of the territories the Ethiopians invaded, they had the legitimate right to do so. UIC did not cross the border between the two nations an inch into the Ethiopian side. Basically, Ethiopians bullied the courts thinking Somalia is at its weakest point therefore ripe for takeover.

In the second quote, Mr. Korane justifies the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia by suggesting AU should have done what Ethiopia did and still doing in Somalia. Before I get into what Ethiopia has done and still doing in Somalia, let me remind Mr. Korane what Africa had gone through to establish AU.

Before McDonald, Shell, CNN and other modern symbols of modern globalization, there were British East Indian Company, Dutch East Indian Company, Danish East Indian Company and many more. These primordial multinational corporations were established in early seventeenth century to trade spices from East Asia to Europe. In 1652, the Dutch East Indian Company establishes outpost at the Cape of Good Hope, southern tip of modern South Africa, to re-supply its merchant ships to and from East Asia. This southern tip of Africa became a Dutch colony and many Europeans moved to settle there. It was the beginning of the African colonization. Later, in late nineteenth century, Suez Canal was opened and Europeans got access to Eastern and North Eastern parts of the continent.

Africa became important for the Europeans not only for their trade route to East Asia but also its wealth of natural resources and manpower. Africa provided minerals such as gold and diamond for the rich and famous in Europe, Safari tours and gaming for the kings and queens, raw materials for their industries and manpower in the form of slavery for their western colonies. Every European Empire demanded piece of the African Pie and in 1884, the so called scramble for Africa took place. Conference was held in Berlin Germany to slice the continent into pieces. Each attending European Empire got its fare share. The sad thing is that Europeans invited the Abyssinian King at the time to participate this conference to support the European take over of Horn of Africa, which makes Abyssinia guilt of participation of the colonization of Africa. Somalis suffered the most in this brutal partition of the continent. Somalia was sliced into five pieces: Two for Britain, NFD and Northern Somalia, one for France, one for Italy and one for Abyssinia.

From 1884 to 1960s, the African continent became under the official rule of its Imperial European Colonizers. During this period of Imperial rule, the natives endured humiliation, dehumanization, enslavement, murder, torture, to name a few. The European colonizers treated Africans lower than they treated their own dogs because their conviction at the time that the Africans were subhuman to the Europeans. The African people became angry and could not tolerate the brutal treatment they were getting under the European Occupation. They began to form liberation movements to liberate themselves from the European colonization. After long struggle, the African people became independent nation states.

To protect these newly found sovereignty of these nations, Organization of African Unity (OAU) was formed in Addis Ababa in 1963. Somalia was one of the founding members. OAU objectives, as stated in article II of 3 and 4 of its CHARTER, are as follows:

3. to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity and independence;
4. to eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa;

OAU principles, as stated in article II of 1,2,3 and 4 of its CHARTER, are as follows:

1 .the sovereign equality of all Mernber States;
2. non- interference in the internal affairs of States;
3. respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each State and for its inalienable right to independent existence;
4. peaceful settlement of disputes by negotiation, mediation, conciliation or arbitration;

The organization’s name has been changed from OAU to AU but these founding objectives and principles remain unaltered. Therefore, when the AU Commissioner, Mr. Alpha Oumar Konare blindly supports the Ethiopian presence in Somalia and praises their occupation as a task that the AU should have done, he is contradicting the very founding objectives and principles of the AU. He cannot and should not support nor praise the Ethiopian occupation of Somalia; instead, he should condemn it since his organization’s responsibility is to defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of the member state, Somalia.

Ethiopia committed genocide in Somalia. The merciless and indiscriminate shelling by the invading Ethiopian troops purposely directed at the populated residential areas in Mogadishu approximately killed 3586 and wounded 7344 mostly women, children and elderly. 1.4 Million of the 2.5 Million residents of the city fled their homes and exposed to all sorts of hardships. They lack shelter, food, sanitation, medicine and water. Due to lack of sanitation, cholera and diarrhea are becoming out break among the displaced people. 1.5 Billion Dollar public and private properties including businesses, hospitals, schools, universities and cars were lost. UN said “the worst humanitarian crises in 2007”

It is a shame that the AU Commissioner, the leader of the African Union, the organization that represents the continent and mandated to defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its member states, to praise Ethiopia for its invasion of the sovereign member state, Somalia; and commend the genocide Ethiopia has committed and still committing in the country.

The presence of the invading Ethiopian troops in Somalia will exacerbate the already volatile situation in the country and the region. Peace in Somalia and peace in the region depends on a genuine political solution for the country’s tribal problem and the immediate withdrawal of the Ethiopian troops. The international community has rejected the theology based rule of UIC; Somali people have rejected Transitional Federal Government’s 4.5 tribal formula. The international community can help by assisting the exhausted Somali people to come up with a political alternative or support any existing indigenous political organization with the right platform. This is the only way forward.

Mahad Y Sheekh

Somalia’s Post Conflict Governance and Economic Development Specialist

mahadym@xidigtcad.com

Source: www.pr-gb.com

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