From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Jul 09 2009 - 04:24:18 EDT
No one seems to know what to do about Somalia
At least 3.5 million Somalians are now on the edge of a precipice, without
access to food, health services or basic security, writes FINTAN O'TOOLE
09/07/2009
IF YOU live in the West, you assume that the "war on terror" invented by
George Bush's neo-conservative allies was an unfortunate episode that ended
with the election of Barack Obama. If you visit east Africa, as I did last
week, you find that its consequences are becoming ever more acute. In the
West, Somalia is a place known for the film Black Hawk Down and pesky
pirates. In Kenya, where I was, it is the source of refugees and guns
flowing across the border, and a threat so grave that there is now serious
talk of sending in troops.
Somalia is the classic failed state, and many of us remember the early 1990s
when Mary Robinson drew attention to a humanitarian crisis and Bill Clinton
launched an ultimately disastrous military intervention.
For a short period, however, Somalia seemed to be emerging from anarchy. For
seven months in 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a broad coalition of
Islamist factions, managed to govern all of Mogadishu and most of
south-central Somalia. The ICU established the rule of law and a good level
of general security for the ordinary population. It opened the seaports and
the international airport.
Unfortunately, however, the US and the EU were supporting a chimerical
"transitional federal government" (TFG), cobbled together at international
conferences but with virtually no support on the ground. Unfortunately, too,
some hardliners within the ICU began to push irredentist territorial claims
against Ethiopia and to ally themselves with Ethiopia's enemy Eritrea. With
US support, Ethiopia invaded Somalia and routed the ICU. The TFG returned to
Mogadishu under Ethiopian patronage, but without any discernible popular
support. Within a few weeks, there was a renewed insurgency against the
Ethiopians and the TFG. The response was vicious, with indiscriminate
attacks on civilian neighbourhoods, involving murders, arbitrary arrests,
looting, beatings and rape.
The Ethiopian invasion and the depredations of the TFG were supported,
either openly or tacitly, by the West. The US provided intelligence and
military assistance, shielded Ethiopia from criticism at the UN, used the
Ethiopians for the "rendition" of Somali terrorist suspects and launched its
own gunship and missile attacks inside Somalia. The TFG police, which
committed vicious crimes against the civil population, are funded by western
governments. A number of warlords have been directly armed by the US as part
of its counter-terrorism operations.
The result has been what many would have considered an impossibility -
Somalia is now in a worse situation than it was in the 1990s. Anarchic and
apocalyptic Islamist groups, collectively known as al shabaab (the youth)
and made up in many cases of child soldiers, are taking control of most of
Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia. The West has conjured up in reality
the monster it was fighting in theory - an extreme and unpredictable
jihadist movement, ideologically aligned to al-Qaeda. The "war on terror"
has called forth the enemy it needs.
Politically, the so-called international community has done nothing but harm
in Somalia. By colluding in abuses of civilians and supporting the Ethiopian
invasion, the West has managed merely to discredit itself in the eyes of
Somalis while leaving them to the tender mercies of the very extremist
Islamism it was trying to fight.
Seeing Somalia through the lens of the "war on terror", the US and the EU
supported a "government" that has no ability to govern, and aided an
Ethiopian invasion that was seen by a majority of the population as a proxy
for the US. The result has not been to create a bulwark against Islamist
extremism but to give a massive boost to hardcore jihadists within Somalia.
By helping to destroy the complex coalition of Islamists in the ICU (whose
reign is now seen as a relative golden age) the US created, not a moderate
pro-western government but a potential Islamist equivalent of the Khmer
Rouge. The ultimate measure of this failure is that the US and the EU now
support Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, leader of the old ICU and now president
of the theoretical western-backed government. Having helped to topple him
when he had authority, they now try to prop him up when he has none.
The result of all of this has been a terrible, but largely unreported,
humanitarian disaster. At least 3.5 million people are now on the edge of a
precipice, without access to food, health services or basic security. Levels
of malnutrition are among the highest in the world. Conditions in camps for
displaced people and refugees are appalling. Access for aid agencies (and
journalists) is increasingly difficult.
No one seems to know what to do about Somalia, but pretending that there is
a nice democratic government to support is doing more harm than good. The
EU, including Ireland, must stop the pretence and refuse to give arms or aid
to anyone who is abusing civilians. The US and the EU must look again at
Somalia, not through the narrow prism of the "war on terror" but with
profound shame that other
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