The "war on terror" and the Worst Humanitarian Crisis in Africa

by Sadia Ali Aden
Source: Media Monitors http://world.mediamonitors.net/

"The current Somali nightmare was exacerbated by the systematic assassination of Somali independent media groups who are not pro TFG and the Ethiopian occupation. And the silence of the international community on this matter is deeply disturbing and sadly deafening."

Approximately three months ago, Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), pressured out Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi. Surprisingly, this political re-arrangement of deckchairs generated much noisy headlines.

Meanwhile, the real story--the great unfolding humanitarian disaster--continued unnoticed.

For the Somali people, the Ethiopian invasion of December of 2006 could not have started at a worse time. Defeating the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and propping up the TFG; this was Ethiopia's immediate rationale for violating Somalia. The larger goal? Forging a partnership between Washington and Addis Ababa in order to execute "war on terror"…

A year later, this mission has not been accomplished. Instead, the "war on terror" has become the terror of war being visited on the Somali people.

Admittedly a handful of Somalis have benefited from the invasion, specifically the dozens of warlords previously driven out of Mogadishu by the UIC. These warlords, the instigators of Somalia's current civil conflict, were reinstalled in their fiefdoms riding on the backs of Ethiopia's invading tanks. As a result, the reviled check points and road blocks used to bully cash out of unarmed civilians were reintroduced in Southern Somalia, particularly Mogadishu.

To keep the invasion and Africa's worst humanitarian catastrophe going, heavy and modern weapons, including airplanes were used. One was a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship that attacked and killed Somali villagers and countless livestock in the hunt for three foreign men suspected for the bombing of 1998 American embassies in Africa, who yet remain at large.

Among those caught in the chaos were visiting Somalis from the Diaspora. In the period between June and December 2006, Somali technocrats returned to their native country to partake the rebuilding in the six month period of peace and stability that was established under the rule of the UIC. The Diaspora arrived with the intention to give back to the land and the people they left behind and contribute to rebuilding their lives.

Unfortunately, an extraordinary rendition programs were the gratitude they received; in that, the TFG, Kenya, Ethiopia and US all being implicated. Young men as young as 12 years of age were taken out of their homes in the dead of the night, blindfolded and taken into unknown destinations.
Fleeing refugees of mostly women and children did meet a similar fate. Unfortunately, these refugees had no where to escape, as Kenya decided to close its borders and deny them entry. This paved the way to the current nightmare scenario: 1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs,) mostly children and women, without any provision or protection from the UN or other humanitarian agencies or NGOs.

In order to create a safe haven for the displaced refugees, the international community must demand the neighboring countries to open their borders. It is all too often that the casualties of war are those that are unmentioned. The innocent men, women and children, caught in the middle, left with no way out.

The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, said border security measures should not impair the ability of deserving Somali civilians to enter Kenya to seek safety and protection as refugees. The neighboring Nations have humanitarian responsibility to safeguard these refugees.

On October 30, 2007, 40 international NGOs have released a joint statement ominously warning against a gathering cloud of humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia urging the international community to respond to this man-made calamity as the Ethiopian forces and militias loyal to the (TFG) callously prevent the delivery, and bluntly stating that "there is an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in South Central Somalia".

Meanwhile, Ethiopian forces continue their shelling of Mogadishu neighborhoods and killing, according to Elman Human Rights group, 7000 civilians mostly women, children, and elderly between January and November of 2007.

"In Shell-Shocked, Human Rights Watch's August 2007 report of our investigation of the March-April hostilities, we documented many of the most serious patterns of abuse by Ethiopian troops, such as indiscriminate attacks on civilians, summary executions and repeated targeting of hospitals," wrote Tom Malinowski, Washington Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch, in an open letter to Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates.

However, the international media by and large remain morally selective in what they show to the world.

Somali caricaturist, Amin Amir (AminArts.com,) depicts this morally selectivity on his December 12, 2007 cartoon. The powerful imagery shows a representative of the international media zooming his camera on a severely malnourished child standing in the middle of a killing field where many bodies are on the ground and Ethiopian fighter jets are flying overhead and dropping missiles. The child retorts: I don't need your coverage; it is these atrocities – pointing to the dead-- that you need to be telling the world.


The current Somali nightmare was exacerbated by the systematic assassination of Somali independent media groups who are not pro TFG and the Ethiopian occupation. And the silence of the international community on this matter is deeply disturbing and sadly deafening.

This year alone, eight Somali journalists were killed- their crimes being to have simply dared reporting the reality on the grounds of Mogadishu. The TFG & Ethiopian forces are terrorizing Somali reporters creating an uncomfortable environment of terror and coercion.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund, one-quarter of the refugees around Afgooye are younger than age of five. Sick children and pregnant women often are turned away at checkpoints, and trucks carrying food and other humanitarian aid are routinely charged $500 each for passing through.

"Things are now getting absolutely worse," said Christian Balslev-Olesen, the UNICEF representative for Somalia. "There is a dirtiness to this war. Children are a real target."

War Crimes Investigation in Somalia: America's global war on terror a catalyst for human rights violation in Somalia

By Abdirizak Omar Mohamed

On November 13, 2007 a United Nations envoy said Somali war crimes suspects should be prosecuted at the international Criminal Court in order to end impunity in the lawless African nation as published on hiiraan on Line and many other international media and on November 16, 2007 the European Parliament called for war crimes probe in Somalia, though, it is too little too late for many victims and their families Somalis around the globe welcome both calls and see this as the first acknowledgement by the International Community that war crimes were committed by Ethiopians and the TFG militias. In fact the European parliament firmly stated for the first time that Ethiopia is the major impediment to peace in Somalia and called for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops.

Nevertheless, unless the USA alters its foreign policy on Somalia and unless Jendayi Frazer, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs acknowledges and admits she is wrong in her defense for the presence of Ethiopian troops in somalia in general and her firm support for the Ethiopian dictator Meles zenawi in particular, thousands more will suffer unabated at the hands of Ethiopians and the misinformed American policy of indiference, policies based on the myth of global war on terror. How many more human life is this American foreign policy based on myth worth?

It is well known fact that American foreign policy has historically been guided by economic and strategic factors rather than by humanitarian considerations, therefore the underlying principle that shapes in any of its foreign policy is first to take into consideration the net positive impact such policy would have on America's economic and national security interest, irrespective of its net negative impact on other countries. Particularly, this mantra became more common and widespread in post 911, as more of their policies subsequently violated other nation's sovereignty, Territorial integrity and peoples human rights as unequivocally evidenced in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq. In the context of protecting its economic interest, the Bush administration has unilaterally invaded Iraq in a false pretence that Sadam possessed WMD. In his new book The Age of Turbulence former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan argues, "as long as the United States is beholden to potentially unfriendly sources of oil and gas, we are vulnerable to economic crises over which we have little control." This is the product, he states of an overriding fact of today's global economy: "[W]orld growth over the next quarter century at rates commensurate with the past quarter century will require between one-fourth and two-fifths more oil than we use today".

While Greenspan's new revelation and his articulations of linking America's long-term energy squeeze with past assassination and invasions of other countries may have triggered a political firestorm in the Bush administration, Somalia is another country that has become a victim of America's economic and national security policy such as the war on terror. However, the mediocre displayed by the International Community of being either indifferent or opting to take an spectator's seat that kept them dormant for the past 16 years has also failed the Somali people, because the International Community failed to react promptly and respond to the atrocities committed against innocent civilians by the Ethiopians, the TFG and the USA.
In the case of Somalia, before the civil war broke out in 1991, the military regime of Siad Barre gave exploration rights in the Northeastern region (Puntland) to giant American companies such as Conoco and Chevron; nevertheless, these oil companies left the country due to security reasons during the civil war. Somalia remained chaos for the next 16 years as powerful tribal warlords who controlled and benefited from the spoils of the war economy ran the country. These warlords who later became members of the transitional Federal Government that was established in Kenya in 2004, even challenged and prevented the TFG to relocate to the capital city of Mogadishu

In June 2006, the Union of Islamic Courts defeated the warlords and created peace and security in almost more than 70% of the country and gained the popular support of majority of Somalis, they succeeded in opening up the Mogadishu airport and seaport for the first time in more than 15 years, schools reopened and children started going to schools, the Union of Islamic courts have finally gained the unconditional support of all Somalis and to illustrate few of their success story they have started formulating policies with respect to land and property disputes and only six gun related deaths were reported for the six months they governed south and central Somalia, where as the number of people killed each day in Mogadishu alone is estimated 10-15 before the union of Islamic courts came to power .

While the US government has followed an ambiguous course in Somalia since the outbreak of the civil war and remained passive on the many peace conferences to reconcile the conflicting parties, this ambiguity of "do nothing" policy the US pursued during the civil war was consistent with its national interest policy on Somalia. However, as always the pattern is the US changes its foreign policies when it fits its national interest to the extent the current administration calls dictators and rogues states its staunchest allies and bad guys become the good guys as Justine Raimondo points out in an op-ed titled why the US supports warlords, in this he states that "in the new millennium, we have tossed aside humanitarian concerns in favor of the ruthless pursuit of "terrorists," real or imagined. The former "warlords" hunted by U.S. troops and blamed for Somalia's shocking degeneration into pure chaos are now aided and abetted by the Americans and their Ethiopian cohorts".

In analyzing the USA's ever-changing policies the Washington post in a very metaphorical yet convincing explains how the US portrays the bad guys as the good guys when it fits its own policy as illustrated by its support for the warlords and demonizing the Union of Islamic Courts, in this excerpt the Post demonstrates how American policy makers deviated from the truth and what was morally right and sided with criminals like bashir raghe and I quote " Abukar Omar Adan was a devoutly Islamic and heavily armed clan elder with ties to the strict neighborhood religious courts that had brought a semblance of order to a city without a government. His rival, Bashir Raghe, was a brash, younger man who had been a waste contractor with the U.S. military forces in Mogadishu before the United States pulled out."
Guess, who is the U.S. proxy No, it's not the bourgeois businessman and city father whose stature in the community as a force for order advertises him as the natural and only logical choice - it's Raghe, the street punk and gang leader, who, together with his fellow killers, has reduced Somalia to a kind of living hell.

It is regrettable Ms. Jendayi Frazer continues supporting warlords and Ethiopians and holds this imaginary reasoning in her mind that ignores logic and contradicts to what experts on conflict resolution are saying, as well as published literature at her disposal- that Ethiopia is major stumbling block to peace in Somalia, and that the Somali Re-liberation alliance is the only true and people's choice that can bring about durable peace in Somalia and not the current TFG that is made up of criminal warlords.

In an interview she gave the voice of America Somali service on November 6, 2007 she presented a view that contradicts to an opinion presented earlier in the same week by the U.S. Special Envoy for Somalia Mr. John Yates who was quoted as saying that the United States underestimated the magnitude of hatred the Somali people have for the Ethiopian troops. While many concur with Mr. yate's view due to the fact of historical enmity and border disputes between the two countries. Ms.Jendayi Frazer thinks otherwise and firmly believes as stated in that interview that "the Ethiopians are playing a critical role in trying to stabilize the country". Ethiopians are de-establising force stupid!!! And Mr. Yates is right in his view that we behold in our inner soul that Ethiopia is our enemy as long as they keep oppressing our brothers and sisters in the Ogaden region.
DIIDNAYE OGOW DALKAYAGA
NINKII DOONAHAYAYOW
INUU DUUDSIYA RABOW
ANNAGU DIIDNAYE OGOW

It is the view of Somalis every where that it is in the best interest of the International community as well as the USA to take a different approach to the Somali conflict than the current rigid approach that is consistent and only reflects on the interest of America's foreign policy. It is high time that America embraces a paradigm shift in its policy on Somalia for the interest of both countries and force Ethiopia to immediately withdraw it troops from Somalia and start engaging with the Somali Re-liberation Alliance in Asmar as it is the only viable alternative that can end the current crises in Somalia.

The question is will the European parliament press their call for war crimes investigation or will they be pressured to keep quite? As was the case when the Europeans Union called for war crimes investigation in April 2007 when Ethiopians and the TFG militias killed thousands of innocent Somalis and displaced half a million of Mogadishu population.

-------------------
Abdirizak O. Mohamed
is an independent researcher and a member of Somali Canadian Diaspora Alliance. He holds a master's Degree in Environmental Studies focusing on post-conflict development from York University, Toronto Canada. and can be reached at E-mail abdirizakom@gmail.com

Etiopiens nya talskvinna: Jendayi Frazer

Ett folkmord pågår och har nu pågått i månader i Ogaden, Etiopien. Omvärlden tittar på utan några reaktioner - som alltid när det handlar om afrikansk människoliv. Regeringar som den svenska har fortsatt belöna terror-regimen i Addis Abeba med mer bistånd! Har ni hört någon som har ifrågasatt den svenska regeringensbeslut om att välja Etiopien bland de länder som fortsatt ska få svenska skattebetalarnas pengar??!
Organisationer som på plats i Ogaden bevittnat om vad som håller på att hända kastas ut ur landet. Bland andra Röda Korset. Media är totalt förbjudna att ta sig till regionen.

Web Exclusive By Jason McLure, Newsweek, skriver:

"The Ethiopian government denies committing atrocities and has expelled Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross from its Somali region. Journalists, too, are barred, but despite these measures reports of abuses nonetheless are continuing. Aid workers and residents in Jijiga, the dusty administrative center of Ethiopia’s Somali region, warn of a humanitarian crisis in the Ogaden countryside, where, they say, marauding Ethiopian troops have blocked village food supplies and shot and hanged civilians suspected of aiding the ethnic Somali Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). William Robertson, the head of mission for the Dutch branch of Doctors Without Borders, says his organization's staff has treated civilians who'd been beaten and shot by the Ethiopian Army. "Our teams saw over 30 villages that had either been completely emptied or burned," he says. They had also witnessed Ethiopian troops chasing women and children away from a well."

Samtidigt kallar Jendayi Frazer, dessa vittnen som påstående, utsagor och beskyllning för vilken det saknas bevis.

"Jendayi Frazer, the State Department’s top Africa official, last week told a press conference in the capital of Addis Ababa that reports of atrocities in the Ogaden were simply “allegations.” “I think the Ethiopian government’s intent is not to kill civilians,”

Man kan ju undra om det är hon som driver terror-regimen i Etiopien.

Jendyi Frazer has a vendetta against people of Somalia

By Amina Mire

Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Carleton University, Ottawa Canada


“Chances are that the United States has run out of options in Somalia after the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Ms Jendayi Frazer conceded last week that Washington’s support for the ouster of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) by Ethiopia might have been a miscalculation. In an interview with BBC, Fraser conceded that the use of force in Somalia had only aggravated an already atrocious situation” [http://www.sirdoon.com/index.php?itemid=361#more] Jendyi Fazer has a vendetta against people of Somalia; She is the real force behind the US sponsorship of the Ethiopian invasion and current brutal occupation of Somalia [http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=18949]. Ms Frazer has not been able to hide her emotive aims behind her sponsorship of Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia under respectable diplomatic language. Her distinctly belligerent overt anti-Somalia rants are often matched by her equally transparent pro Ethiopian rants. Her partisan rants gets great deal cruder as the invasion project becomes undone under its own cruel violence and as the resistant to the occupation gains momentum. Her press releases and interviews on Somalia are increasingly marked by incoherent outbursts as the resistance to her colonizing agenda is being exposed and effectively resisted. Here latest rant against the leadership of the Union of Islamic Courts is an apparent attempt at asserting herself in the Asmara gathering a week after the sham conference she sponsored, and was organized by Zinawi , Gedi and Yusuf, has failed spectacularly! Jendai Fraser lacks most basic skills required for the position she occupies and the sooner this becomes apparent to clearer heads in the US state department the better it will be for the US to salvage any shred of integrity or relevance to the situation in Somalia. MS Frazer is a dimwitted but very aggressive woman who has failed to deal with the fact that she is considered as a divider and belligerent partisan by the majority of the Somalis; as a result, she cannot be considered as an honest broker of peace and reconciliation among the people of Somalia. But Ms Frazer, it seems, is a woman who cannot take a rejection. Thus, as Somalis gather in Asmara to plan how to liberate their country from the foreign occupation entity which is wrecking death and destruction in Somalia, an occupation project which she supports fully, she makes a last ditch effort to sabotage the Asmara gathering with her irrational loud shouts and baseless accusations as she stands shoulder to shoulder with Meles Zinawi! In fact, in her irrational belligerent ways, MS Frazer is helping the Somali people’s resolve to liberate their country from the colonial occupation Tigre army of Meles Zinawi. This might just an urban myth but it nonetheless reflects MS Frazer’s relentless support for Ethiopia’s illegal invasion and occupation of Somalia; it has been suggested that, at least on one occasion, Ms Fraser has complained to the leaders of the Transitional Federal Government, “that it was unfair for Somalia to have all these miles of Ocean Coasts while Ethiopia has none”! Her latest belligerent rants from Addis Ababa gives credence to her naked attempt to support Ethiopia’s attempt to annex Somalia. “The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, said the presence of Hassan Dahir Aways at a meeting in Asmara was further evidence that Eritrea provided sanctuary for terrorists”. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6985656.stm] Ms Frazer is too dimwitted to grasp how stupid it is for her to make these powerful yet baseless charges while having a visit with Meles Zinawi in Addis Ababa. But Ms Frazer has a history of making similar ridiculously baseless accusatory comments against the whole Somali Diaspora community by calling them “wreckers and Spoilers of Peace” [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2098191,00.html] Her legendary rants against the opponents of the US foreign policy towards Somalia is matched by her equally fantastic ignorance of the facts on the grounds in Somalia before and after the Ethiopian invasion. Thus when she was recently asked by a BBC reporter to comment on the reality of “ spiralling armed violence” in Somalia under the Ethiopian occupation, Ms, Fraser said: “It is hard to say whether it (Somalia) is better or worse off because I think Ethiopia’s action was an action in the context of other actors’ actions. It is difficult to frankly say so. What is better is that the international community has converged on a set of recommendations for a way ahead.” [http://www.sirdoon.com/index.php?itemid=361#more] This is a woman without conscience for she made these comments after over 460,000 Somalis were being made internally displaced people and the country has been turn to a living hell on earth by Zinawi’ occupation force [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18745786/site/newsweek/; http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2067438,00.html; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6699479.stm http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070520-070601-8870r http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2067951,00.html] But people of Somalia cannot be fooled for they see this woman for who she really is: vindictive, manipulative “native informant” with malevolent colonizing agenda of her own [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/africa/6656753.stm, http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/somalia/2007/0515warning.htm]. . Jedai Fraser is the real power behind the US sponsorship of Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia. She will continue to give total US backing to Ethiopia’s brutal occupation of Somalia. The people of Somalia will struggle for the liberation of their country and victory shall be theirs.

Har USA bedömt situationen i Somalia felaktigt - igen?

Jag har valt att infoga en hel artikeln från Star Tribune i Minnesota om hur Somalier där ser situationen i sitt hemland. Denna syn delas av majoriteten av Somalier i Somalia och runt om i världen. Det anmärkningsvärda är också de senaste uttalande av oppostionspartierna i självaste Etiopien. De fördomer invasionen och kräver att den etiopiska regimen ska sluta att "lägga sig" i Somalias inre anlägenhet och tåga ur landet.

Fortsätt att läsa artikeln själv.
--------------------
U.S. sees terrorism in Somalia; Minnesota Somalis see it differently

By Sharon Schmickle, Star Tribune
May 06, 2007
Listen to Bush administration officials and you hear the chilling claim that a new terrorist front is emerging in Somalia because militant Islamists have created secret havens and platforms there for Al-Qaida.

Now listen to Prof. Ahmed Samatar echoing thousands of Somalis in Minnesota. "Lies," said Samatar, who is dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College in St. Paul.
In the chasm between the dire official warning and the Somalis' vehement rebuttal lie high-stakes questions. If the threat is real, does it signal another round of terrorist attacks that could reach as far as Europe and the Americas? If the naysayers are right, is the United States poised to repeat mistakes it made by miscalculating the tensions tearing at Iraq?

As home to America's largest Somali community, Minnesota is a main stage for the debate over the threat of terrorism in Somalia and its neighbors on the Horn of Africa. The arguments here are informed by phone calls from loved ones that ex-patriot Somalis receive from their homeland.

While Samatar, and many who agree with him, frame one end of the arguments, Somalis in Minnesota represent opinions that range from clear opposition to U.S. actions to a shared concern that terrorists have established a beachhead in Somalia.

Washington watched warily last summer while groups calling themselves the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts pushed aside a feckless transitional federal government to take control of a large region of Somalia and restore a modi(edited) of order after 15 years of violent anarchy.
Then, beginning in December, the United States helped Ethiopian forces and the transitional government oust the Islamic Courts and beat back a series of insurgent attacks. U.S.-backed government leaders claimed last week that Mogadishu was calm and under their control.

But the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported Friday that most of the 365,000 people who fled the capital city aren't returning because they expect more fighting. In a major report on terrorism last week, the State Department laid out a rationale for ousting the Islamic Courts. Somalia's weak government, protracted instability, porous borders, unguarded coastline and proximity to the Arabian peninsula have long made it a target for international terrorists, the report said.

In that vulnerable setting, it said, the Islamic Courts were quickly "hijacked by al Shabaab (the Youth), a small extremist group affiliated with Al-Qaida that consists of radicalized young men."
With leaders who trained in Afghanistan, the group allegedly is behind recent murders of foreign aid workers, Somali nationals and an Italian nun, it said. The report also accused some Islamic Courts leaders of harboring Al-Qaida operatives suspected in U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and other attacks.

Vehement critics
But if it is true that embassy bombers were hidden in Somalia, the United States could have pursued them with the approval of many in the Islamic Courts movement, Samatar said.
Indeed, there might have been resistance from some Taliban-like reactionaries, he said, but the broad-based movement included many reasonable Muslims who were prepared to work with the United States.

Instead, he said, Washington bought Ethiopia's argument that "a major storm of terrorism was brewing in Somalia and that they needed to destroy it." As a result, the resistance fighting Ethiopian troops "is not just the Islamic Courts or what is left of them," he said.

"What we are seeing now is a national resistance movement, and a significant part of it is youths," he said. "Why wouldn't they be fighting if their homes are destroyed, their families are no more, they have no other place to go and they face mighty Ethiopian forces. What else are they supposed to do?" Samatar, who talks regularly with a sister and other relatives in Somalia, said there is a growing feeling that Islam itself is under attack.

"They fear there will come a time when Islam will be so demonized that the Somalis will be pushed to run away from their own religion ... that any Somali who speaks in the name of Islam will be automatically seen as a terrorist," he said.

Salim Lone analyserar Etiopiens invasion av Somalia

Är du bland de få som fortfarande tror Etiopien/USAs invasion av Somalia var i Somaliernas intresse?

I så fall rekommenderas du att lyssna på Salim Lone, f.d. talsman för FN i Irak.

Del 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ-ZzbKkU50

Del 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utOAWutYz4U

Läs även Pittsburgh Post-Gazettes ledarartikel under Veckans artikel till höger eller via länken här: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07100/776508-192.stm .

USA:s felaktig policy på Afrikas Horn förvarar bara läget i området

International Crisis Group, som oftast har ett utmärkt inblick på olika kris områden i världen har kommit med en kritisk rapport om USA:s politik på Afrikas Horn. Jag skall inte försöka återberätta på vad de har skrivit. Kevin J Kelley på East African http://allafrica.com/stories/200702260031.html har sammanfattat delar av rapporten. Intressanta iakttagelser från artikeln citeras här nedan. Vill någon gå vidare och läsa om ICG kan följa länken http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1

"...Washington's exclusive focus on fighting terrorism is also producing "disastrous" results in the Horn of Africa, according to two researchers for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. "In everything but rhetoric," say John Prendergast and Colin Thomas-Jensen, "counter-terrorism now consumes US policy in the Greater Horn as totally as anti-communism did a generation ago."

"...American policy toward the Horn has a mainly militarist thrust, Prendergast and Thomas-Jensen maintain. They note that, in addition to deploying 1,500 soldiers at a base in Djibouti, the Bush administration is providing Kenya and other countries in the Horn with a total of $100 million for counter-terrorism initiatives."

"...Three strategies are said to steer the US approach to the sub-region: "Almost unconditional support for the Ethiopian government, extremely close co-operation on counter-terrorism with Khartoum, and occasional but spectacular forays into Somalia in the hope of killing or capturing Al Qaeda suspects."

"...The strategic alliance with Ethiopia has in turn led the US to apply little pressure for a final settlement of the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Prendergast and Thomas-Jensen suggest. At the same time, President Bush is calling for more US development assistance for Ethiopia in addition to a boost in anti-Aids funds from $110 million last year to $409 million next year."

Andra bloggar om:
bloggar.se

Vem bryr sig om det är kaos och elände i Somalia !

...it is fair to ask if the Bush administration leaders who decided that the Islamic Courts group had to go also thought about what would come afterward. Or did they not think about that? Or did they simply not care what happened to 8 million Africans as long as their own quest for Muslim enemies could be pursued by military means again?

Läs gärna hela Pittsburgh Post-Gazettes ledar-artikeln via länken:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07055/764659-192.stm

Har ni hört att Somalier har demonistrerat i Stockholm?

Själv klart inte kan svaret vara från många. Det ”fria väst media” vill som, historien oftast vitnar om, inte se, inte lyssna och inte prata om de ämnen som inte i för väg bestäms av redaktionerna. Tro nu inte det är redaktionerna på tidningar, radio och TV jag pratar om. Jag syftar snarare på dem som redigerar stakars redaktioner. De som har de ekonomiska och politiska makten!

Saker bestämmes långt i förväg om vad som är intressant att bevakas. Har nyheten en ekonomisk värde? Har händelsen politisk värde för uppdragsgivare? Det är just sådana frågor som flyger på stakars journalists skalle innan den vågar lämna sin sköna stol och bege sig ut. Ut till verkligheten, vare sig det är Sergels torg i Stockholm, Somalia eller Gaza. Mitt ständigt återkommande budskap är alltså: Det finns ingen ”fri media”, Public Service eller vad de fint vill kalla sig själva. Det är bara ett spel för gallerierna. Har du tänkt på hur mycket av vårt tänkande som stoppades och censurerades från att komma ut till de så kallade ”fria väst media” innan Bloggandet?

Åter till ämnet, Somalierna från olika delar av Sverige och tom från Italien, Kanada, Norge, Storbritannien och USA samlades den 3:e februari i Stockholm för att demonstrera mot etiopisk/amerikansk ockupation. Om man ska lita på svensk media bevakning har detta inte hänt. Aldrig ägt rum! Däremot står det att läsa samma dag och i nästan alla tidningar i landet att utvisning till Somalia kostade 200 000.

Eftersom bild kan tala högre än ord låter jag dig följa länken nedan och se vad du har gått miste om. Just för att bland andra de journalister som du, via skatt och licensavgifter betalar deras löner för, inte vågade eller inte fått gå ut till verkligheten.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1fYYEKhTAs

Vad säger den "fria väst media" om detta?

De nya makthavarna i Somalia har i dagarna förbjudit tidningar, radio- och teve-stationer i huvudstaden Mogadishu. Några reaktioner från den västerländska media eller vakthundar som organisationen Reportrar Utan Gränser har vi dock inte hört någon protest. I Sverige, hade landets största tidning, s.k. ”oberoende liberal” en liten notis igår, som knappt gick att märka längst ner på sin utrikes sida.

Det stod: ” I försök at ta kontroll över den oroliga huvudstaden gav regeringen på måndagen order om att tre lokala radiostationer samt tv-kanalen al-Jaziras redaktioner ska stängas.”

Man försöker här rättfärdiga att det är OK att de stängde media för att skapa lugn i den oroliga landet. De ber oss läsare att förstå förbudet. Eller hur tolkar ni texten från DN?

Det är ingen slump! Denna ”regering” som förbjuder media och yttrandefrihet är alltså den av USA och Väst-stödd samling av krigsherrar. Undra om hur reaktionen och protesten hade varit om det vara de förra makthavaren – de Islamiska domstolarnas högsta råd - som stod för stängningen av radio och tidningar.

Invånarna i Mogadishu har inte bara berövats rätten att röra sig fritt i sin egen stad. Nu har de också avskaffat deras rätt att lyssna på radio och tv om vad som händer i sin stad, sitt land och omvärlden.

Och omvärlden får följa utvecklingen via CNN, BBC och nyhetsbyråer som matas med ready made nyhetsnotiser av Pentagon och etiopiska ockupationsarmé.

Kör hört DN och andra ”fria tidningar”! Det är bara att ”klippa ut – och klippa in” som gäller. KK-journalistik är dagens trend

Sanningen bakom Etiopiens invasion av Somalia börjar komma fram

Vi kommer att få vete mer och mer om vad som planerades i Washington, London och Addis Abeba innan invasionen av Somalia. Det har tidigare rapporterats att General John Abizaid som är USA högsta militär med ansvar för Mellanöstern, Central Asien och Afrikas horn besökte Etiopien för ett möte med Zenawi, just tre veckor innan invasionen. Allt eftersom en och annan källa avslöjar om vad som sagts och vilka aktörerna är kommer motiven och intressen bakom invasionen av Somalia att krypa fram.

Jag vill gärna rekommendera er att läsa nedan följande tre artiklar:

1.Ethiopia has become an Anglo-American proxy in the Horn of Africa
2. How US forged an alliance with Ethiopia over Invasion
3. Ethiopia destroyed Somalia Peace Talks: Speaker

Alla tre finns samlade på Global Research:s webbsida. Ta länken här:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20070113&articleId=4446

Andra bloggar om:
bloggar.se

Etiopien och al-Zenawis Terrorarmé måste ut från Somalia

Den västerländska media, inkl den svenska har välkomnat den etiopiska invasionen av Somalia och nederlaget av de islamiska domstolarna i landet. Vissa har tom gått till överdrift och kallar invasionen "det bästa som hänt Somalia på årtionden". Det råder ingen tveksamhet att domstolarna, kan ha haft individer som kan bedömas vara "extrema" av USA. Samtidigt har varken USA eller Etiopien kunnat komma med en enda hållbar bevis om att de Islamiska Domstolarna skulle styras av al-Qaida eller att de skulle vara ett hot för USA, Etiopien eller något annat land. Däremot har vi bevittnat, under de sex månader som Islamisterna haft makten i Mogadishu och större delen av Somalia, att de uppnått den omöjliga, nämligen återställande av ordning och ett normalt liv för befolkningen.
Denna ordning var inte gjord som många i väst-media har ofta refererat "på bekostnad av personliga friheter" med grymma bestraffningar. Vad väst-media räknar med begränsningar av personliga friheter är i verkligheten det förbud av vapen och narkotikan Khat som Domstolarna införde. Domstolarna utförde offentliga avrättningar av två personer som dömdes för mord. Det är en bråkdel av de 24 avrättningar som utfördes bara i Texas under 2006. Vidare anklagar väst-media att Domstolarna avskräckte invånarna i Mogadishu för västerländisk dans, musik och filmar. De är dock inte mer undertryckande än t ex Saudiarabien i detta avseende. Att folket för första gång på 15 år kunde gå på sina gator utan rädsla för mord, våldtäkt, rån och kidnappning är något som väst-media inte kunde värdesätta. Om du frågar människorna i dagens Irak skulle de däremot uppskatta detta högst av allt.
Domstolarna har nu med etiopisk och amerikansk invasion av landet utbytts med en bräcklig "regering" som skapades av Etiopien och som främst består av just de krigsherrar som har terroriserat befolkningen de senaste 15 åren. För att denna "regering" skall bestå är den vidare stark beroende av Somaliernas huvudfiende Etiopien och dess krigsmakt.
Det bör nu inte förvåna någon om krisherrarna åter börjar plundra och terrorisera Somalia igen, eller Islamisterna utkämpar gerillakrig för att driva ockupanterna, den etiopiska krigsmakten, ut ur landet.
Bra läs tips: besök länken "Veckas artikel av värde" under Mina Bokmärke till höger. Destabilizing The Horn av Salim Lone.