Ethiopian Air Strikes in Somalia: Violation of the Geneva Conventions
Sophia Tesfamariam
January 10, 2007
News reports tell of civilian casualties in Ethiopia’s illegal invasion of Somalia. Ethiopia invaded Somalia on Christmas Eve using the pretext “hunting down terrorists” and “extremists” with the tacit approval of the US State Department and US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi E. Frazier. Horn analysts and observers alike agree with this opinion penned by Azzam Tamimi on 10 January 2007 in the Guardian. Mr. Tamimi puts it succinctly when he says:
All the evidence suggests that the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in Somalia was a 100% local project. The UIC consisted of pious "men of religion" who were trusted by the public in Mogadishu to restore law and order after years of lawlessness and havoc reeked by tribal warlords, each of which had regional or international sponsors. It was the model set by the UIC inside Mogadishu that encouraged the Somalis in other towns across the country to appeal to them to rescue their communities from the chaos brought upon them by gangs run and funded by unrepentant warlords…The UIC leaders and members had no personal ambitions; their only ambition was to restore order and enable the Somalis to live their lives as they wished. All claims of association between the UIC and al-Qaida have been unfounded. They were merely pretexts for foreign regional and international intervention aimed at halting the progress of the UIC in establishing its authority across the country. Now we know that the ultimate objective of the invading power, Ethiopia, has been more than just stemming the growth of the UIC phenomenon. Supported by the US, Ethiopia has been after the total destruction of the UIC project in prelude to installing a puppet regime led by the warlords' "interim government"…”
Today, there are reports of US air strikes on Somalia based on self serving “credible intelligence” from Meles Zenawi’s deceptive, genocidal vote rigging minority regime in Ethiopia. The Associated Press 10 January 2007 headline read “U.S. air strike in Somalia stemmed from Ethiopian tip”. The report said:
The Ethiopian military provided the targeting intelligence used by a U.S. Special Forces aerial gunship in a strike in southern Somalia…The raid, conducted by an AC-130 gunship early Monday on a remote island at the southern tip of Somalia, was done in "close cooperation" with Ethiopia, a U.S. ally in the war on terror, said the U.S. official…"We acted on time-sensitive intelligence and made the strike in cooperation with the Ethiopians," the U.S. official said, who is based in the region. He said Ethiopia provided the intelligence tip…”
Reminiscent of US air strikes in Afghanistan in 2002 that resulted in the destruction of an ICRC warehouse (not once but twice) and the widely reported wedding party bombing, where 40 people had been killed and another 100 injured, based on faulty information or one side using US forces to eliminate their rivals, a wedding in Somalia is just one of the hundreds of civilian casualties of the current air strikes in Somalia by US and Ethiopian forces. Today, thousands of children, women, herdsmen, nomads and Somalis seeking refuge in the jungles of Somalia are at risk.
The AP Report goes on to say:
helicopter gunships attacked suspected al-Qaida fighters in the south in an assault that a Somali lawmaker said had killed 31 civilians… The U.S. military official said the strike was probably carried out by Ethiopia since the aircraft were identified as Russian-made Hind helicopter gunships of the type used by the Ethiopian military”
Was there any doubt that the mercenary regime in Ethiopia was behind the US bombings of Somalia? Not in my mind. For the sake of the American servicemen who have to live with the consequences, including their conscience, to bomb, albeit targeted, Somali jungles in search of Al Qaeda, based on tips from the self serving minority regime in Ethiopia, I hope they got their target. Anything else will not be acceptable. So far the Pentagon has chosen to remain mum.
Meles Zenawi and the Transitional National Government in Somalia are boasting of victory and success. Abdirahman Dinari, the interim government spokesperson told AFP:
So many dead people were lying in the area. We do not know who is who, but the raid was a success…”
I bet the mothers of the dead can identify who is who!
BBC reported on 9 January 2006 on the killing of Mohammed Mahmud Burale’s 4 year son and that “a local MP Abdulkadir Haji Mohamoud Dhagane told the BBC that 27 people, mostly civilians, had been killed near Afmadow. According to the BBC, the MP also said:
Thousands of Somalis are caught between the rock and hard place as they are in the middle of air strikes, Ethiopian tanks and the Kenyan soldiers who have blocked the border…”
These reprehensible actions by Ethiopian and Kenyan forces are a violation of international humanitarian law and the Security Council must act to stop these egregious violations before they escalate into mass murder and massacre of innocent civilians.
In a related report BBC reported on 10 January 2007 of new air strikes in Somalia and said:
Residents in Afmadow town described two attacks nearby, whilst another occurred on the coast in Ras Kamboni…At least 20 civilians have died…dozens of people, mainly pastoralists, and their cattle were killed in air strikes on Tuesday evening near watering holes…Aid workers report that more 1,000 people have been wounded since fighting erupted in December. However, there is no information of causalities in the current fighting in the remote south…”
The collateral damage, deaths of innocent Somali children, women and others, in the hundreds, will not be acceptable if it turns out that this is yet another ploy by the minority regime and the Transitional National Government in Somali to destroy, “break the back” of the Union of Islamic militia and supporters. Hopefully the Americans and Ethiopians that carried out the air strikes on Somalia can prove that the hundreds dead in the sea are indeed “terrorists” and not nationalist Somali fighters, fighting the Ethiopian invaders and their supporters. Jendayi E. Frazier’s public comments about the Union of Islamic Courts reflect a definite US bias.
Air strikes in Somalia that have killed innocent civilians are a violation of international law and Article 51 of the First Protocol to the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions clearly state that “Parties shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives”. Let us take a look at what the Geneva Conventions say about civilian targets, Article 51- Protection of the civilian population says:
Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are:
a. Those which are not directed at a specific military objective (three Al Qaeda operatives do not constitute a military objective, nor does the installation of a handpicked puppet regime, the TNG, in Somalia
b. Those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective
Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate:
a. An attack by bombardment which treats as a single military objective a number of clearly separated and distinct military objectives located in a city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians;
b. An attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.
The indiscriminate bombardment of Somali territories by Meles Zenawi’s forces as he “hunts down terrorists” (Islamic Court Union and their supporters) falls foul of the long-accepted principle of proportionality, contained in Articles 51 and 57 of the First Protocol. Indiscriminate bombings into Somali jungles, where visibility is poor, and where Somali citizens have taken refuge from the fighting in their towns and villages, cannot be legally or morally justified. There were no military targets in the jungles, one or two suspected Al Qaeda members does not constitute “military targets”.
The Geneva Conventions permit a degree of collateral damage when legitimate military targets are attacked, but international public opinion will judge the United States harshly if American bombs and missiles kill civilians in war torn, devastated and poor Somalia. Any military and strategic gains (capture or killing of alleged Al Qaeda operatives) will be compromised and international and domestic condemnation will be inevitable. Anti-American sentiment in the region and across Africa and the Middle East will increase and confidence in the US Administration will be greatly undermined. Africans will be asking if American forces would have carried out such indiscriminate bombings within American residential neighborhoods just because they suspected Al Qaeda operatives resided there… to flush out Al Qaeda operatives? Even if the tips were credible?
Meles Zenawi and his regime’s foot soldiers are conducting a propaganda campaign designed to hoodwink the Ethiopian people and other Africans to justify the minority regime’s illegal invasion of Somalia. No matter how hard the western media spin the truth; Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia is not consistent with Article 51 of the UN Charter and the minority regime was not acting in defense of Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. While the right to self-defense is one of the most basic rights of any state, and Articles 2 and 51 of the U.N. Charter codify that right and affirm that every state is entitled to use self-defense to protect its territorial integrity and political independence, Meles Zenawi’s invasion of Somalia was not in self defense and the minority regime attempts and propaganda to justify its attack on Somalia are futile because:
1. There was no armed attack/ military occupation of sovereign Ethiopian territories. On the contrary, 8000 Ethiopian troops had invaded Somali territory.
2. An alternative resolution was available, but was deliberately hijacked by the TNG, Meles Zenawi and the Islam phobic Jendayi E. Frazier. Security Council resolution and IGAD and African Union proposals was hijacked and deliberately misrepresented by Jendayi E. Frazier and Meles Zenawi
3. There was no urgency-the Union of Islamic Courts was not a threat to Somalia or its people. It had restored peace, security and stability in Somalia for the first time in 15 years and the only persons threatened by this development were the criminals, Abdulahi Yusuf, the interim President of Somalia and Meles Zenawi’s hand picked Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi.
The invasion of Somalia by Meles Zenawi’s forces was not in self defense, nor was it about “hunting down terrorists”; these were just pretexts, encouraged by the US State Department and the Islam phobic Jendayi E. Frazier. Both Jendayi E. Frazier and Meles Zenawi conducted a very vocal propaganda campaign for weeks leading up to the invasion of Somalia in which they vilified the Union of Islamic Courts and their leadership, and attempted to associate them with Al Qaeda and terrorism, without ever producing evidence to support their erroneous and exaggerated assertions, with the sole purpose of installing the Transitional National Government of Somalia led by Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission must conduct an investigation and the UN Security Council should exercise its power and refer Meles Zenawi and his minority regime to the courts for investigation. The Security Council can salvage its fledgling credibility, efficacy and integrity by enforcing Resolution 1725 and by calling for the immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia. Ethiopia’s continued violations of international and humanitarian law undermines all efforts in the global war on terrorism and the rule of law.
Finally, the deafening silence of the so-called human rights organizations in light of the carnage and massacres in Somalia by Meles Zenawi’s marauding forces is shameful. The credibility and integrity of the United States has been compromised once again by self-serving, inexperienced, Islam phobic cocktail diplomats who are airport hopping to the various African capitals in search of an exit strategy for their mercenary Meles Zenawi and his illegitimate minority regime in Addis. The world looks on as the United States is pulled into another unnecessary war against Islam, instigated and propagated by Meles Zenawi and the minority Tigrayan regime in Ethiopia to divert the Ethiopian people away from its domestic problems and to “break the back” of its armed political opponents under the guise of “terrorism”.
President Bush will be addressing the American people this evening; I hope he realizes that the latest attack on Somalia based on Meles Zenawi’s “intelligence tip” is not a victory in the global war on terrorism but rather a cold blooded massacre of unarmed innocent Somali civilians. I hope he realizes that the US State Department and Jendayi E. Frazier have been defending, protecting and supporting financially, diplomatically and politically the only terrorist lurking in the Horn of Africa-Meles Zenawi, who is a menace to the Ethiopian people in particular, the Somali people and the people of the Horn of Africa in general.
The rule of law will prevail over the law of the jungle.
All the evidence suggests that the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in Somalia was a 100% local project. The UIC consisted of pious "men of religion" who were trusted by the public in Mogadishu to restore law and order after years of lawlessness and havoc reeked by tribal warlords, each of which had regional or international sponsors. It was the model set by the UIC inside Mogadishu that encouraged the Somalis in other towns across the country to appeal to them to rescue their communities from the chaos brought upon them by gangs run and funded by unrepentant warlords…The UIC leaders and members had no personal ambitions; their only ambition was to restore order and enable the Somalis to live their lives as they wished. All claims of association between the UIC and al-Qaida have been unfounded. They were merely pretexts for foreign regional and international intervention aimed at halting the progress of the UIC in establishing its authority across the country. Now we know that the ultimate objective of the invading power, Ethiopia, has been more than just stemming the growth of the UIC phenomenon. Supported by the US, Ethiopia has been after the total destruction of the UIC project in prelude to installing a puppet regime led by the warlords' "interim government"…”
Today, there are reports of US air strikes on Somalia based on self serving “credible intelligence” from Meles Zenawi’s deceptive, genocidal vote rigging minority regime in Ethiopia. The Associated Press 10 January 2007 headline read “U.S. air strike in Somalia stemmed from Ethiopian tip”. The report said:
The Ethiopian military provided the targeting intelligence used by a U.S. Special Forces aerial gunship in a strike in southern Somalia…The raid, conducted by an AC-130 gunship early Monday on a remote island at the southern tip of Somalia, was done in "close cooperation" with Ethiopia, a U.S. ally in the war on terror, said the U.S. official…"We acted on time-sensitive intelligence and made the strike in cooperation with the Ethiopians," the U.S. official said, who is based in the region. He said Ethiopia provided the intelligence tip…”
Reminiscent of US air strikes in Afghanistan in 2002 that resulted in the destruction of an ICRC warehouse (not once but twice) and the widely reported wedding party bombing, where 40 people had been killed and another 100 injured, based on faulty information or one side using US forces to eliminate their rivals, a wedding in Somalia is just one of the hundreds of civilian casualties of the current air strikes in Somalia by US and Ethiopian forces. Today, thousands of children, women, herdsmen, nomads and Somalis seeking refuge in the jungles of Somalia are at risk.
The AP Report goes on to say:
helicopter gunships attacked suspected al-Qaida fighters in the south in an assault that a Somali lawmaker said had killed 31 civilians… The U.S. military official said the strike was probably carried out by Ethiopia since the aircraft were identified as Russian-made Hind helicopter gunships of the type used by the Ethiopian military”
Was there any doubt that the mercenary regime in Ethiopia was behind the US bombings of Somalia? Not in my mind. For the sake of the American servicemen who have to live with the consequences, including their conscience, to bomb, albeit targeted, Somali jungles in search of Al Qaeda, based on tips from the self serving minority regime in Ethiopia, I hope they got their target. Anything else will not be acceptable. So far the Pentagon has chosen to remain mum.
Meles Zenawi and the Transitional National Government in Somalia are boasting of victory and success. Abdirahman Dinari, the interim government spokesperson told AFP:
So many dead people were lying in the area. We do not know who is who, but the raid was a success…”
I bet the mothers of the dead can identify who is who!
BBC reported on 9 January 2006 on the killing of Mohammed Mahmud Burale’s 4 year son and that “a local MP Abdulkadir Haji Mohamoud Dhagane told the BBC that 27 people, mostly civilians, had been killed near Afmadow. According to the BBC, the MP also said:
Thousands of Somalis are caught between the rock and hard place as they are in the middle of air strikes, Ethiopian tanks and the Kenyan soldiers who have blocked the border…”
These reprehensible actions by Ethiopian and Kenyan forces are a violation of international humanitarian law and the Security Council must act to stop these egregious violations before they escalate into mass murder and massacre of innocent civilians.
In a related report BBC reported on 10 January 2007 of new air strikes in Somalia and said:
Residents in Afmadow town described two attacks nearby, whilst another occurred on the coast in Ras Kamboni…At least 20 civilians have died…dozens of people, mainly pastoralists, and their cattle were killed in air strikes on Tuesday evening near watering holes…Aid workers report that more 1,000 people have been wounded since fighting erupted in December. However, there is no information of causalities in the current fighting in the remote south…”
The collateral damage, deaths of innocent Somali children, women and others, in the hundreds, will not be acceptable if it turns out that this is yet another ploy by the minority regime and the Transitional National Government in Somali to destroy, “break the back” of the Union of Islamic militia and supporters. Hopefully the Americans and Ethiopians that carried out the air strikes on Somalia can prove that the hundreds dead in the sea are indeed “terrorists” and not nationalist Somali fighters, fighting the Ethiopian invaders and their supporters. Jendayi E. Frazier’s public comments about the Union of Islamic Courts reflect a definite US bias.
Air strikes in Somalia that have killed innocent civilians are a violation of international law and Article 51 of the First Protocol to the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions clearly state that “Parties shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives”. Let us take a look at what the Geneva Conventions say about civilian targets, Article 51- Protection of the civilian population says:
Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are:
a. Those which are not directed at a specific military objective (three Al Qaeda operatives do not constitute a military objective, nor does the installation of a handpicked puppet regime, the TNG, in Somalia
b. Those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective
Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate:
a. An attack by bombardment which treats as a single military objective a number of clearly separated and distinct military objectives located in a city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians;
b. An attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.
The indiscriminate bombardment of Somali territories by Meles Zenawi’s forces as he “hunts down terrorists” (Islamic Court Union and their supporters) falls foul of the long-accepted principle of proportionality, contained in Articles 51 and 57 of the First Protocol. Indiscriminate bombings into Somali jungles, where visibility is poor, and where Somali citizens have taken refuge from the fighting in their towns and villages, cannot be legally or morally justified. There were no military targets in the jungles, one or two suspected Al Qaeda members does not constitute “military targets”.
The Geneva Conventions permit a degree of collateral damage when legitimate military targets are attacked, but international public opinion will judge the United States harshly if American bombs and missiles kill civilians in war torn, devastated and poor Somalia. Any military and strategic gains (capture or killing of alleged Al Qaeda operatives) will be compromised and international and domestic condemnation will be inevitable. Anti-American sentiment in the region and across Africa and the Middle East will increase and confidence in the US Administration will be greatly undermined. Africans will be asking if American forces would have carried out such indiscriminate bombings within American residential neighborhoods just because they suspected Al Qaeda operatives resided there… to flush out Al Qaeda operatives? Even if the tips were credible?
Meles Zenawi and his regime’s foot soldiers are conducting a propaganda campaign designed to hoodwink the Ethiopian people and other Africans to justify the minority regime’s illegal invasion of Somalia. No matter how hard the western media spin the truth; Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia is not consistent with Article 51 of the UN Charter and the minority regime was not acting in defense of Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. While the right to self-defense is one of the most basic rights of any state, and Articles 2 and 51 of the U.N. Charter codify that right and affirm that every state is entitled to use self-defense to protect its territorial integrity and political independence, Meles Zenawi’s invasion of Somalia was not in self defense and the minority regime attempts and propaganda to justify its attack on Somalia are futile because:
1. There was no armed attack/ military occupation of sovereign Ethiopian territories. On the contrary, 8000 Ethiopian troops had invaded Somali territory.
2. An alternative resolution was available, but was deliberately hijacked by the TNG, Meles Zenawi and the Islam phobic Jendayi E. Frazier. Security Council resolution and IGAD and African Union proposals was hijacked and deliberately misrepresented by Jendayi E. Frazier and Meles Zenawi
3. There was no urgency-the Union of Islamic Courts was not a threat to Somalia or its people. It had restored peace, security and stability in Somalia for the first time in 15 years and the only persons threatened by this development were the criminals, Abdulahi Yusuf, the interim President of Somalia and Meles Zenawi’s hand picked Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi.
The invasion of Somalia by Meles Zenawi’s forces was not in self defense, nor was it about “hunting down terrorists”; these were just pretexts, encouraged by the US State Department and the Islam phobic Jendayi E. Frazier. Both Jendayi E. Frazier and Meles Zenawi conducted a very vocal propaganda campaign for weeks leading up to the invasion of Somalia in which they vilified the Union of Islamic Courts and their leadership, and attempted to associate them with Al Qaeda and terrorism, without ever producing evidence to support their erroneous and exaggerated assertions, with the sole purpose of installing the Transitional National Government of Somalia led by Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission must conduct an investigation and the UN Security Council should exercise its power and refer Meles Zenawi and his minority regime to the courts for investigation. The Security Council can salvage its fledgling credibility, efficacy and integrity by enforcing Resolution 1725 and by calling for the immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia. Ethiopia’s continued violations of international and humanitarian law undermines all efforts in the global war on terrorism and the rule of law.
Finally, the deafening silence of the so-called human rights organizations in light of the carnage and massacres in Somalia by Meles Zenawi’s marauding forces is shameful. The credibility and integrity of the United States has been compromised once again by self-serving, inexperienced, Islam phobic cocktail diplomats who are airport hopping to the various African capitals in search of an exit strategy for their mercenary Meles Zenawi and his illegitimate minority regime in Addis. The world looks on as the United States is pulled into another unnecessary war against Islam, instigated and propagated by Meles Zenawi and the minority Tigrayan regime in Ethiopia to divert the Ethiopian people away from its domestic problems and to “break the back” of its armed political opponents under the guise of “terrorism”.
President Bush will be addressing the American people this evening; I hope he realizes that the latest attack on Somalia based on Meles Zenawi’s “intelligence tip” is not a victory in the global war on terrorism but rather a cold blooded massacre of unarmed innocent Somali civilians. I hope he realizes that the US State Department and Jendayi E. Frazier have been defending, protecting and supporting financially, diplomatically and politically the only terrorist lurking in the Horn of Africa-Meles Zenawi, who is a menace to the Ethiopian people in particular, the Somali people and the people of the Horn of Africa in general.
The rule of law will prevail over the law of the jungle.
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