From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Sep 18 2008 - 09:48:48 EDT
Somalia's struggle for self-determination
Thursday, September 18, 2008
By: Chris Garaffa
Islamic Courts threaten Washington's regional hegemony
Somalia, a geopolitically strategic location in the Horn of Africa
on the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, has been the
target of imperialist domination since the 1880s.
Britain and Italy, as colonial powers divided the country as part of
the colonial scramble that divided almost all of Africa in the 1884
Conference of Berlin. This scramble has continued past 1960 when
Somalia became united and independent.
The proximity of Somalia to the oil-rich Middle East has
intensified the competition. Over the past several decades the efforts
of U.S. imperialism have splintered the country into territories
controlled by warlords and embroiled in an internal armed conflict.
The conflict in Somalia gained media attention when the Southern
port city of Kismayo fell to forces loyal to the Islamic Courts Union
on Aug. 22. Thousands of people fled the city and 70 were reported
dead, according to the Aug. 25 edition of the newspaper The Australian.
Western sources often paint the ICU as an illegitimate force
wreaking havoc and creating a humanitarian crisis in Somalia, but a
brief look at recent history shows the opposite is true.
Since 1991, Somalia has been without an effective centralized
government. In 2004, the Transitional Federal Government that had been
formed in exile brought together a collection of warlords who held
control of the southern and southwestern portions of the country. The
former imperialist colonizers recognized the TFG, even thought the TFG
had little support inside Somalia. Simultaneously, the ICU emerged as
an independent rival to the imperialist-backed TFG. The ICU, while
having extremely conservative Islamic ideology, was able to gain the
support of the masses of people in the southern and southwestern parts
of Somalia.
In 2006, Ethiopia, acting as a proxy force for U.S. imperialism,
invaded and occupied Somalia. Backed and supported by major western
nations and their African allies, Ethiopia˘s goal was to secure the
areas nominally under control of the TFG and restore some semblance of
a central government and stability to this strategically important
country.
The invasion by Ethiopia was a direct response to the growth of the
ICU in areas the TFG claimed to control. The ICU created the first
somewhat unified national government in Somalia since 1991. However,
the ICU did not control all areas of the country; Somaliland and
Puntland, for instance, formed independent states in the north and
central parts of Somalia. The ICU became the center for resistance to
Ethiopia, their TFG allies and the U.S. puppet master.
Washington gets Ethiopia to do its dirty work
The conflict broke out in early 2006 in Mogadishu. The ICU was able
to expand the areas under its control over the course of the year and
push the TFG forces further and further south. The ICU was able to
consolidate most of the territorial gains by making agreements with
local tribal rulers. The ICU was able to gain enough control over the
southern and southwestern portions of the country such that a
centralized and viable Somali state began to emerge. By December 2006,
the TFG warlord forces were more or less defeated.
But on Dec. 21, 2006, the balance of power shifted. Ethiopia invaded
Somalia, displaced the ICU and drove it underground, forcing the ICU to
function as a guerilla movement again.
By early 2007, Ethiopia helped
prop up the pro-Western TFG government by occupying the areas of the
country that had been controlled by the ICU. On Jan. 9, 2007, in one
final blow to the ICU government, Washington launched air strikes
against one of the last cities held by the ICU to assist the Ethiopian
forces.
Since December 2007, the Ethiopian military, with air and sea
support from the Pentagon, has continued to occupy the southern part of
Somalia, propping up the TFG government.
The United States justifies it
support of the Ethiopian occupation as part of the "war on terror."
Washington claims the ICU has some links to Al Qaeda, and would use
Somalia as a base to attack U.S. interests in Africa and the Mideast.
This reasoning is self-serving. It is possible that the ICU has some
ties with Al Qaeda; it more likely has ties with other militant
anti-imperialist resistance forces of an Islamic character.
A U.N. global arms trade document alleged that Egyptian and Saudi
forces also provided assistance to the ICU. Terrorism cannot be the
main reason behind U.S. support for the Ethiopian occupation and puppet
TFG government. The demonization is meant to obscure the history of
U.S. imperialism in Somalia and its effort to strengthen its domination
of the region.
The Ethiopian forces occupying Somalia are acting as a proxy for
implementing the National Security Strategy doctrine of the United
States. In the aftermath of the overthrow of the Soviet Union, that
doctrine stated that the foreign policy aim of the United Sates is to
prevent the emergence of any regional or international power that can
rival the United States for global domination.
The "war on terror" is a manifestation of this doctrine. It has been
used to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq with the aim to
strengthen U.S. domination of the Middle East. It has been extended to
Somalia to strengthen U.S. domination of the Horn of Africa.
In
Somalia, the U.S. saw the ICU as a force opposed to the U.S. agenda
that could become a regional power to rival the United States.
Therefore, in the interest of U.S. imperialism, the ICU could not
remain in power.
The Horn of Africa, which includes Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and
Djibouti, has been of strategic importance to the United States for
some time. Former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger hit the nail
on the head when he stated, "The Horn of Africa is of particular
strategic importance due to its geographical proximity to the troubled
Middle East." Somalia sits right near the Suez Canal and some of the
most vital international shipping lanes. In addition, by ousting a
government hostile to it in Somalia, Washington limits adversaries such
as China from strengthening their presence in the region.
Struggle continues
The ICU is not a homogenous force. Its continued resistance to
imperialism and its proxies is aided by the fact that other forces are
fighting alongside its own against the occupation.
The capture of
Kismayo shows that, despite the U.S-sponsored Ethiopian occupation, the
Somali people are determined to fight against the U.S.-backed warlords
who have wreaked havoc on the country since 1991.
The ICU and the Somali resistance, in spite of their conservative
ideology, are being targeted for no other reason than their desire to
free Somalia from foreign occupation and domination. Progressives
should stand in solidarity with those who are resisting imperialist
intervention. Support for the right of self-determination is an
essential component of an anti-imperialist perspective.
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