Aerial bombardment of Somalia by US

Here we have an aerial relic of the 1980's namely a Somali MiG fighter shot down over Hargeisa, now being the centrepiece of the Victory Monument in downtown Hargeisa.

Today we have heard about aerial bombardment by the US on suspected Al-Qaeda operatives in the far south of Somalia. Rest assured, they were not using aircraft like this. Oh no, the aircraft used were AC-130's, heavily armed gunship that has detection equipment and can work under the cover of darkness and which have very little chance of being shot down by conventional arms.

I find the business very disturbing. For a start, the whole Al-Qaeda organisation seems to be at least a figment of its own and US propaganda than a real organisation, serving a purpose for both. But what is exactly membership of such an organisation? Do they carry cards ith a membership number? Or is it any Muslim group with terrorist purposes?

Secondly, as I have said before I think aerial bombing is a very cowardly way of going to war.

Thirdly, given that so many so-called Al-Qaeda operatives have been recruited and trained in Europe, de sthe US resrve the right to go bombing, say, university campuses in the UK if they have 'intelligence' of plotting of dastardly deeds there (because it certainly happens)?

Fourthly, Somalia now has an historical opportunity to make peace with itself, with the attention of the whole world, including even the new head of the UN (whose first task may be to sack the UN representative to Somalia (and Somaliland) a rather nasty piece of work named Mr Fall). The US, having encouraged the illegal Ethiopian invasion, has a large part to play in the reconciliation process, in which case the unilateral bombing of Somali sovereign territory is hardly the best place to start, esepcially when considering where they last left off.

Lastly, we have yet another example of the US bombing an Islamic country in a so-called war against terror but which can easily be seen, by those who want to, as a war on Islam.

Please let us have more emphasis on national reconciliation and less warmongering. Because before you know it, the much predicted counter-insurgency will become a reality, giving Somalis another ten or more year of violence and uncertainty.

Why the US should recognise Somaliland's independence

Early evening colours in Wadi Rum - facing north, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

I came across an interesting article on the web, through searching on the blogger bar above. Again it refers to Somaliland, discussing why the US should recognise Somaliland. My response was as follows (not published as I was not able to log on to that site):

"Thank you Professor Schraeder for this excellent article. Time has moved on a bit with regards to the situation in the south, with reports this morning that the US has launched an air strike, following the sweeping away of the UIC by joint TFG and Ethiopian troops.

The US is taking an active role now in the affairs of Somalia and the timing would seem to be perfect to push for recognition of Somaliland, either through the AU or unilaterally (hopefully with support of the EU, or EU minus Italy). Taking Somaliland out of the Somalia equation, not only rewards Somaliland for its efforts, but simplfies the task of the Somalis in the south.

Not only this, but at a time of what one hopes will be national reconciliation within Somalia, the example of Somaliland can be used as an illustration of how a democratic and pluralist nation can be formed in the context of Somali traditions.

One other practical way the US could help Somaliland would be to put pressure on its arch-ally, Saudi Arabia to lift the ban on import of livestock from Somaliland, the ban being politically motivated, not backed by any scientific or medical evidence that there is anything wrong with Somaliland's livestock. This would help kick-start Somaliland's improverished economy.

In addition, maybe a strong word in the Somaliland Government's ear that arresting and imprisoning journalists is not good democracy."

Go back to the deserts whence you came

Wadi Rum - passage in the sand, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

As Ethiopian troops fired into crowds of protestors in Mogadishu, it seems that the violence is escalating again. It is also reported that the number two of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, wants to get in on the act by calling on Muslims to fight the 'crusaders' and respond to his call for a jihad. He called on Islamists to use suicide attacks, mines and ambushes against the government and the Ethiopian forces.

Thank you, but a jihad is the last thing which Somalia with already so much recenty history of war and strife needs. The country needs to reconcile and build a peaceful, pluralistic society, just has been achieved in Somaliland. This will not happen through the meddling of religious nutcases or terrorists like Al-Qaeda. The Somalis know this adn it is to be hoped that they have the courage to engage each other in nation building.

So humble, as I am, I call for those Al-Qaeda troublemakers to go back into the desert and leave countries like Somalia alone. It looks like there is plenty of space for them there. Just go and shut up.

Further., there seems to be no news of the journalists in Hargeisa, except that they have apparently been badly treated in prison by the police.

Alarmed!!!

Charles at Hargeisa Club, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

In the meantime, I am alarmed to read an article, published by Journalists Sans Frontieres, whereby it appears that a broadcaster in Baidoa, Somalia has been arrested and, more alarmingly, three journalists in Hargeisa working for the Haatuf newspaper, including the owner Yusuf Abdi Gabobe. Somaliland is supposed to earn respect from the world as a haven of peace, democracy and the rule of law. This sort of nonsense cannot be excused.

I am not exactly sure if this is the man, but his name is Baashe Abdi Gabobe, so a very close fit and he mentioned that he was owner/editor of Haatuf. He was kind enough to show us around Hargeisa when we were there, including the Hargeisa Club, where my parents used to spend so much of their time when they were living there.

The link I have on this blog is to Somaliland Times, an English language sister newspaper of Haatuf. The paper is often critical of certain actions of certain ministers and rightly so, if the stories are to be believed. It would be such a tragedy if Somaliland were to follow the road of so many African countries towards oppression, secrecy and dictatorship.

What IS going on?

Schoolchildren, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

The question is whether or not the residents of Mogadishu were cheering or not when the Prime Minister of the TNG rode into town with his Ethiopian sponsors or not.

War is always a time of much propaganda and there seems to be very much of it about when receiving news from Somalia these days.

One usually like to turn to the BBC in times like this but it has to be said that they have been very sympathetic to the cause of the UIC (Union of Islamic Courts) these past few months with many articles talking about how law and order and peace was brought to Mogadishu since they took control. Their first reaction was to talk about panic and rioting and looting going on when the UIC retreated, whilst other news agencies mentioned crowds cheering the Government forces.

My guess is that it was a bit of both, probably many happy to see the back of the extremists who had taken the re-introduction of Sharia Law too seriously whilst many others had no confidence in the TNG, being a gathering of ex-warlords chosen mainly outside the country with the support of Somalia's enemies, notably Ethiopia whose troops were used to push back into the capital.

Then the other main question is the extent to which the UIC really did represent a terrorist threat to the region and the world as a whole. The US certainly thought so and it was certainly in Ethiopia's interests to paint them as so. Although the UIC top did include a few who had been associated with terrorism before, notably Mr Aweys, there was also a large faction of moderates, allies to Mr Ahmed. As far as I could tell from following the reports over the past few months neither side was particularly in the ascendence.

Somalis (and I am amazed that all of a sudden the world media wants to call them Somalians, no doubt under the influence of the all-knowing Americans) are in general moderate Muslims with a strong non-Islamic traditions such as music and poetry. They are not naturally the extreme Arabist Wahhabi type Muslims, albeit a few of them, such as Mr Aweys have been infected by bthat poison. My guess is that given the chance and time, the moderate Muslim faction would have prevailed as the people would get sick and tired of the extreme wahhabi ways. However, it seems that they have not been given the chance. Instead the country has been taken over by puppets of foreign powers, some of which such as the USA have a distinctly anti-Islamic agenda and I can think of no better way to recruit extremists to the Wahhabi/jihadist cause than such a humiliation.

Going back to propoganda, none is more blatant than the labelling of the UIC as Islamic/jihadist terrorists, posing an imminent threat to neighbours and the rest of the world. It is interesting to see how if these people were such a threat how quickly they could be beaten. I have no idea myself about how militant the UIC really has been, although it was a bit silly of thenm to call on a jihad against Ethiopia nad all of Somalia's foes. I would not have taken this too seriously as they clearly had no capacity to carry out such a war and it sounded more like a rally to the cause than a serious threat. Still, given the world situatiuon, dominated by the US' war on terror, it was a very silly thing to say.

Lastly, the propoganda woulkd have had us believe that there were thousands of Ethiopian troops in Somalia with the TNG and likewise thousands of foreign, including Eritrean troops helping the UIC. Well, subsequent evenst have shown that there WERE thousands of Ethiopian troops whilst I have NOT read any reports of Eritreans or sundry Jihadists having been killed or captured by the Ethiopians/TNG. Again, my guess is that the story of Eritreans being in Somalia helping the UIC was a story put around by the Ethiopian Government in order to get popular support for their involvement, the rivalry with Eritrea being one thing sure to unite most Ethiopians together.

So there we have it, a web of confusion, lies and propaganda and it is all happening now. I have asked Fred if he might use this as a project for school, being more relevant than looking at World War One propaganda, which is what they normally do.

21st century wars of religion

Red is the colour!, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here we have some more 'Ethiopians', namely ethnic Somalis who live in Ethiopia on account of the way the British gave the Ogaden away to the Ethiopian emperor at the start of the 20th century.

Our local rag, Het Parool, had an interesting article about the Ethiopian aggression in Somalia talking about the Ethiopian government being dominated by the mainly Christian highlanders who oppress the 'conservative' Muslims of eastern Ethiopia (the Ogaden). Interesting that the journalist felt the need to use the word conservative to describe the Muslims, when the very same label could be attached to the highland Christians, hardly the most progressive people in the world.*

As it happens, the Ethiopian governemnt is not so much dominated by the highland Christians but a small clique from Tigray, the home of the warrior Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, who seems to be as much hated by the non-Tigrayan Christians as anyone lese in Ethiopia. He is just a warlord wearing the cloak of democracy (through organising patently unfair elections, killing dissidents and imprisoning most of the opposition of dubious charges of treason). But he is a very clever man and knows very well how to keep the Americans on his side, painting himself as a Christian bulwark in a land surrounded by militant and undemocratic, if not terrorist, Muslims.

For this, he is given assitance to further oppress his own people as well as encouragement to settle old scores in Somalia. What is easier nowadays to accuse someone or some organisation of having links with al-Qaeda? And if one offers to stand up and fight, well bingo!, help yourself to all the arms, intelligence and 'military 'training' you want. You become defender of western values, an ally in the American war on terror and, if you are lucky, you can even get the United Nations on your side. In this instance, the UN security council seemed not to bat an eye-lid when passing a resolution to stop the embargo on arms to Somalia and to approve of the stationing of foreign 'peace-keeping' troops in Somalia.

Tomorrow, I will have a look at how the entry of the Ethiopian army and its puppet Somali government has been reported in the various media.

* - Just thought I ought to mention that our other paper, the more intellectual NRC Handelsblad did actually describe the Muslims of Ethiopia as mainly liberal. Class just shows through. Cancel that parool subscription!

Ethiopians attack Somali airports

Ladies posing, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

According to the BBC

Ethiopian jets have bombed two airports in Somalia in a widening operation against an Islamic militia group.
Jets hit the international airport in the capital, Mogadishu, and another at Balidogle, in the south of the country.

So the war has started in earnest, no doubt pushed on by the US, wanting to open up yet another flank on their war on terror. Again, an Ethiopian governement which is widely hated by its people and whose democratic and human rights credentials are almost the lowest of the low. Hypocrisy? Yes, as always and again the Somali people are suffering.