Somalia: The Unadulterated Facts
Sophia Tesfamariam
April 28, 2007
This week, lawmakers and a scandal weary, suspicious, disillusioned and jaded American public, listened as the family of Patrick Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan and Jessica Lynch, who was injured in an ambush in Iraq, testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the army’s handling of those incidents. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman of the Committee talked about how “Evidence was destroyed” and “Witness statements were doctored” and “sensational stories were invented” by Administration officials to cover up the truth.
Kevin Tillman, Patrick’s brother accused the military of “intentional falsehoods” and “deliberate and careful misrepresentations” and how his family was “being actively thwarted by powers that are more interested in protecting a narrative than getting at the truth and seeing justice”. For her part, Jessica Lynch in her moving testimony, told lawmakers that “the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales”. She is right.
I suppose we will hear more about the investigation in the next coming weeks and months and see how far Administration officials were willing to go to advance US foreign policy. We remember only too well the extent to which former Secretary of State Colin Powell went to lie to the UN about the presence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. We know about the “uranium from Niger” fabrication and scandal and we were shocked by the pictures and stories of torture and gross human rights violations at the detention centers at Abu Guraib and Guantanamo Bay. We also know about the lies and evasions about the CIA’s secret rendition programs and secret US prisons around the world. Yes, war is ugly and war is dirty, but the lies and deceptions and the hypocrisy of the so-called world powers make it even uglier.
Those of us who have been following developments in Somalia know only too well that deceptive and diversionary gimmicks and tactics were used to justify the December 2006 US-backed Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Somalia.
Lest the facts get lost in the misinformation and cover up of the invasion and occupation of Somalia, allow me to present the key issues for the record.
1. In violation of the Arms Embargo on Somalia, the United States and its mercenary, the minority regime in Ethiopia led by the deceptive, street smart Prime Minister Meles Zenawi financed and supported a coalition of warlords calling themselves the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT). The warring warlords, the violence and chaos that ensued, prevented the Transitional National Government of Somalia from establishing the TNG in Mogadishu in line with the Transitional National Charter of Somalia. After remaining in Kenya since its formation in 2004, the TNG relocated to Somalia in February 2006, straddled between Jowhar and Baidoa but unable to assert its power in Mogadishu.
2. On 6 June 2006, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) after a two month long battle against the US-backed ARPCT, the UIC took control of Mogadishu, the Somali capital. Mogadishu's air and seaports were re-opened for the first time since 1995. The UIC expanded its control throughout Somalia and restored peace and security in areas under their control. For the first time since the fall of Siad Barre and the ugly Black Hawk incident in 1993, the people of Somalia were optimistic about Somalia’s future. But the celebrations would be dampened; their dreams and aspirations would be dashed by Washington’s Islam phobic “new strategy for Somalia”, Meles Zenawi’s, Abdulahi Yusuf’s and Ali Mohammed Ghedi’s illicit agendas for Somalia.
Instead of welcoming the peace, stability and security in Somalia after 15 years of anarchy and chaos, refusing to engage the UIC in any meaningful way, advancing a very negative defamation and vilification campaign against it, Jendayi E. Frazier, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs set out to implement Washington’s ill-advised, ill-conceived, irrational, Islam phobic agenda to oust the UIC and prevent an “Islamic Government” from being formed in Somalia.
After the invasion of Somalia, Jendayi E. Frazier, and Vicki Huddleston, former US Charge D’affaires in Ethiopia continued to deliberately and maliciously concoct lies about the UIC and even attempted to link them with Al Qaeda. A vile and cruel vilification campaign aimed at the UIC and their supporters continues today. As they did in Afghanistan and Iraq, State Department officials, instead of admitting the grave mistakes and ill advised policies in Somalia, they have chosen to once again engage in time buying, diversionary gimmicks and tactics to justify Ethiopia’s presence in Somalia.
3. Washington turned to the spineless mercenary regime in Ethiopia led by Meles Zenawi, to effectuate the racist, Islam phobic, irrational and irresponsible US policy for Somalia, and install the puppet Transitional National Government of Somalia (TNG) led by Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi, against the wishes of the Somali people.
4. Advancing foreign interests in Somalia, despite protest by members of the Transitional National Parliament of Somalia, realizing the Somali people’s strong and popular support for the UIC, in violation of the Somali people’s right to self determination, the warlords, Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi unilaterally “invited” Meles Zenawi’s forces to violate Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in violation of Somalia’s Transitional National Charter. They refused to ask Meles Zenawi to remove his forces from sovereign Somali territories and justified the invasion and occupation of Somalia
5. The vote-rigging minority regime in Ethiopia, blatantly violating international law, the UN and African Union Charters, fabricating and exaggerating the threat posed by the UIC to Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, lying to the Ethiopian Parliament and people, shamelessly pledging fealty to the United States, needlessly and recklessly endangering the lives of Ethiopia’s sons and using them as cannon fodder and minesweepers, waged its unprovoked aggressive war of invasion and occupation of Somalia on 24 December 2006 using false unsubstantiated pretexts.
6. Today, Meles Zenawi’s forces continue to rape, loot, and torture innocent Somalis, and engage in extra judicial renditions, indiscriminate shelling of civilian populated areas, hospitals and markets, and other atrocities in Somalia and the puppet “TNG” continues to justify Ethiopia’s crimes in Somalia. The UN is reporting that over 300000 have been forced to flee the violence and hundreds have died. The humanitarian crisis has been compounded by the TNG’s withholding of humanitarian aid for the displaced. With the Kenya-Somalia border closed, men, women and children are now open targets for the Ethiopian and TNG’s murderous campaign.
7. The fact that no self respecting African state, with the exception of Uganda, has provided troops for the African Union’s so called “stabilization force” imposed on the Somali people by Washington and its mercenary Meles Zenawi, to “prop up” Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi, is evidence of an Africa-wide silent disapproval and condemnation of Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia. The minority regime in Ethiopia and its handlers bare full responsibility for the deaths and destructions in Somalia.
8. Ali Mohammed Ghedi, undermining the Somali people’s courageous and determined struggle against the illegal and ruthless Ethiopian occupation, insulting the intelligence of the international community, echoing the boisterous and self serving claims made by his mentor Meles Zenawi, in order to appease his US handlers and garner more support, recently commented on Somali radio saying, “there is no so called fighting between Hawiye clan and the government. The battle is clearly between terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda and the government supported by Ethiopian and AU troops”.
Ghedi is dead wrong. The truth is that the “TNG” and the invading Ethiopian forces are not fighting “terrorists”, “extremists”, “Islamists etc. in Somalia, but rather, they are fighting patriotic Somalis who are defending Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity against the TNG and its “invited” foreign occupiers. His day of reckoning is coming and he will pay for the genocide in Somalia.
9. After four months of bloodshed and carnage, Washington and its mercenaries, the vote rigging illegitimate minority regime in Ethiopia and the illegitimate US-UN recognized TNG in Somalia have yet to present any evidence to support their loud, fanatical and deceptive claims about the presence of “Al Qaeda operatives” in Somalia. Claims about the presence of “2000 Eritrean troops” also turned out to be a blatant lie, a diversion, a deceptive decoy, designed to hoodwink the Ethiopian people to justify and camouflage the US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia.
10. The presence of Ethiopian forces in Somalia was, and remains, the casus belli for the conflict between the TNG and the people of Somalia. There can be no meaningful dialogue and reconciliation amongst the Somali people who are suffering under a terrorizing and brutal Ethiopian occupation, pillage and plunder.
11. The US State Department continues to deny the crimes committed by the minority regime in Ethiopia and has given its staff explicit direction to mislead and misinform the American public about the war in Somalia. It has also prevented US lawmakers from taking any punitive actions against the regime for its gross human rights violations and violations of international law.
So there you have it, the truth about Somalia.
Instead of making toothless statements to the press, the Secretary General should urge the Security Council to call for the unconditional and immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from Somalia and call for an independent investigation into Ethiopia’s growing list of war crimes in Somalia, including genocide or risk undermining its fledgling credibility, efficacy and integrity. Silence means consent, it is time to act!
As for Washington lawmakers, it is time to put an end to Washington's Islam phobic, condescending, incoherent, racist and provocative attitude and policies for Africa and its continued financial, diplomatic, military and political support and shield for Meles Zenawi's lawless, belligerent minority regime, which believes “might is right” and in the primacy of the law of the jungle over the rule of law, as it violates international law, massacres innocent Ethiopians and Somalis in cold blood, and violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of neighboring states.
Meles Zenawi, Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi have undermined America's reputation and credibility in the Horn of Africa. The “global war on terror” cannot be used as a pretext for violation of state sovereignty, indiscriminate bombings and pulverization of villages, and the massacre of innocent civilians.
The rule of law must prevail over the law of the jungle!
Kevin Tillman, Patrick’s brother accused the military of “intentional falsehoods” and “deliberate and careful misrepresentations” and how his family was “being actively thwarted by powers that are more interested in protecting a narrative than getting at the truth and seeing justice”. For her part, Jessica Lynch in her moving testimony, told lawmakers that “the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales”. She is right.
I suppose we will hear more about the investigation in the next coming weeks and months and see how far Administration officials were willing to go to advance US foreign policy. We remember only too well the extent to which former Secretary of State Colin Powell went to lie to the UN about the presence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. We know about the “uranium from Niger” fabrication and scandal and we were shocked by the pictures and stories of torture and gross human rights violations at the detention centers at Abu Guraib and Guantanamo Bay. We also know about the lies and evasions about the CIA’s secret rendition programs and secret US prisons around the world. Yes, war is ugly and war is dirty, but the lies and deceptions and the hypocrisy of the so-called world powers make it even uglier.
Those of us who have been following developments in Somalia know only too well that deceptive and diversionary gimmicks and tactics were used to justify the December 2006 US-backed Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Somalia.
Lest the facts get lost in the misinformation and cover up of the invasion and occupation of Somalia, allow me to present the key issues for the record.
1. In violation of the Arms Embargo on Somalia, the United States and its mercenary, the minority regime in Ethiopia led by the deceptive, street smart Prime Minister Meles Zenawi financed and supported a coalition of warlords calling themselves the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT). The warring warlords, the violence and chaos that ensued, prevented the Transitional National Government of Somalia from establishing the TNG in Mogadishu in line with the Transitional National Charter of Somalia. After remaining in Kenya since its formation in 2004, the TNG relocated to Somalia in February 2006, straddled between Jowhar and Baidoa but unable to assert its power in Mogadishu.
2. On 6 June 2006, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) after a two month long battle against the US-backed ARPCT, the UIC took control of Mogadishu, the Somali capital. Mogadishu's air and seaports were re-opened for the first time since 1995. The UIC expanded its control throughout Somalia and restored peace and security in areas under their control. For the first time since the fall of Siad Barre and the ugly Black Hawk incident in 1993, the people of Somalia were optimistic about Somalia’s future. But the celebrations would be dampened; their dreams and aspirations would be dashed by Washington’s Islam phobic “new strategy for Somalia”, Meles Zenawi’s, Abdulahi Yusuf’s and Ali Mohammed Ghedi’s illicit agendas for Somalia.
Instead of welcoming the peace, stability and security in Somalia after 15 years of anarchy and chaos, refusing to engage the UIC in any meaningful way, advancing a very negative defamation and vilification campaign against it, Jendayi E. Frazier, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs set out to implement Washington’s ill-advised, ill-conceived, irrational, Islam phobic agenda to oust the UIC and prevent an “Islamic Government” from being formed in Somalia.
After the invasion of Somalia, Jendayi E. Frazier, and Vicki Huddleston, former US Charge D’affaires in Ethiopia continued to deliberately and maliciously concoct lies about the UIC and even attempted to link them with Al Qaeda. A vile and cruel vilification campaign aimed at the UIC and their supporters continues today. As they did in Afghanistan and Iraq, State Department officials, instead of admitting the grave mistakes and ill advised policies in Somalia, they have chosen to once again engage in time buying, diversionary gimmicks and tactics to justify Ethiopia’s presence in Somalia.
3. Washington turned to the spineless mercenary regime in Ethiopia led by Meles Zenawi, to effectuate the racist, Islam phobic, irrational and irresponsible US policy for Somalia, and install the puppet Transitional National Government of Somalia (TNG) led by Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi, against the wishes of the Somali people.
4. Advancing foreign interests in Somalia, despite protest by members of the Transitional National Parliament of Somalia, realizing the Somali people’s strong and popular support for the UIC, in violation of the Somali people’s right to self determination, the warlords, Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi unilaterally “invited” Meles Zenawi’s forces to violate Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in violation of Somalia’s Transitional National Charter. They refused to ask Meles Zenawi to remove his forces from sovereign Somali territories and justified the invasion and occupation of Somalia
5. The vote-rigging minority regime in Ethiopia, blatantly violating international law, the UN and African Union Charters, fabricating and exaggerating the threat posed by the UIC to Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, lying to the Ethiopian Parliament and people, shamelessly pledging fealty to the United States, needlessly and recklessly endangering the lives of Ethiopia’s sons and using them as cannon fodder and minesweepers, waged its unprovoked aggressive war of invasion and occupation of Somalia on 24 December 2006 using false unsubstantiated pretexts.
6. Today, Meles Zenawi’s forces continue to rape, loot, and torture innocent Somalis, and engage in extra judicial renditions, indiscriminate shelling of civilian populated areas, hospitals and markets, and other atrocities in Somalia and the puppet “TNG” continues to justify Ethiopia’s crimes in Somalia. The UN is reporting that over 300000 have been forced to flee the violence and hundreds have died. The humanitarian crisis has been compounded by the TNG’s withholding of humanitarian aid for the displaced. With the Kenya-Somalia border closed, men, women and children are now open targets for the Ethiopian and TNG’s murderous campaign.
7. The fact that no self respecting African state, with the exception of Uganda, has provided troops for the African Union’s so called “stabilization force” imposed on the Somali people by Washington and its mercenary Meles Zenawi, to “prop up” Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi, is evidence of an Africa-wide silent disapproval and condemnation of Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia. The minority regime in Ethiopia and its handlers bare full responsibility for the deaths and destructions in Somalia.
8. Ali Mohammed Ghedi, undermining the Somali people’s courageous and determined struggle against the illegal and ruthless Ethiopian occupation, insulting the intelligence of the international community, echoing the boisterous and self serving claims made by his mentor Meles Zenawi, in order to appease his US handlers and garner more support, recently commented on Somali radio saying, “there is no so called fighting between Hawiye clan and the government. The battle is clearly between terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda and the government supported by Ethiopian and AU troops”.
Ghedi is dead wrong. The truth is that the “TNG” and the invading Ethiopian forces are not fighting “terrorists”, “extremists”, “Islamists etc. in Somalia, but rather, they are fighting patriotic Somalis who are defending Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity against the TNG and its “invited” foreign occupiers. His day of reckoning is coming and he will pay for the genocide in Somalia.
9. After four months of bloodshed and carnage, Washington and its mercenaries, the vote rigging illegitimate minority regime in Ethiopia and the illegitimate US-UN recognized TNG in Somalia have yet to present any evidence to support their loud, fanatical and deceptive claims about the presence of “Al Qaeda operatives” in Somalia. Claims about the presence of “2000 Eritrean troops” also turned out to be a blatant lie, a diversion, a deceptive decoy, designed to hoodwink the Ethiopian people to justify and camouflage the US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia.
10. The presence of Ethiopian forces in Somalia was, and remains, the casus belli for the conflict between the TNG and the people of Somalia. There can be no meaningful dialogue and reconciliation amongst the Somali people who are suffering under a terrorizing and brutal Ethiopian occupation, pillage and plunder.
11. The US State Department continues to deny the crimes committed by the minority regime in Ethiopia and has given its staff explicit direction to mislead and misinform the American public about the war in Somalia. It has also prevented US lawmakers from taking any punitive actions against the regime for its gross human rights violations and violations of international law.
So there you have it, the truth about Somalia.
Instead of making toothless statements to the press, the Secretary General should urge the Security Council to call for the unconditional and immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from Somalia and call for an independent investigation into Ethiopia’s growing list of war crimes in Somalia, including genocide or risk undermining its fledgling credibility, efficacy and integrity. Silence means consent, it is time to act!
As for Washington lawmakers, it is time to put an end to Washington's Islam phobic, condescending, incoherent, racist and provocative attitude and policies for Africa and its continued financial, diplomatic, military and political support and shield for Meles Zenawi's lawless, belligerent minority regime, which believes “might is right” and in the primacy of the law of the jungle over the rule of law, as it violates international law, massacres innocent Ethiopians and Somalis in cold blood, and violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of neighboring states.
Meles Zenawi, Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi have undermined America's reputation and credibility in the Horn of Africa. The “global war on terror” cannot be used as a pretext for violation of state sovereignty, indiscriminate bombings and pulverization of villages, and the massacre of innocent civilians.
The rule of law must prevail over the law of the jungle!
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