| Somali militant group claims bombing of Ethiopians "This is a message to the Puntland authority which had extended a welcome and showed affection to the long-time enemy Ethiopians," the Web site, informing Muslim society to keep away from the infidels of Ethiopia whether they are in military dress or not..More |
Profitters of terrorism other than those
labeled "terrorists"
26 July, 2010 | By Kiflu Hussain
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“Like many of my countrymen who tasted the brunt of
brutal suppression in the most cynical Machiavelli style rule
under Meles Zenawi, I do know that what he touches or where
treads will not be peaceful. On the contrary, what he does in
collusion with the big powers of the world, may turn Somalia
into Africa’s Lebanon, and Ethiopia into Africa’s Syria.So,I am
afraid the bombs will go on to wreak much havoc.”
Introduction
explosion that killed these soldiers as “a kick of a dying horse.” To my
utter disappointment, the public which enjoys a free flow of information
that is unthinkable in my country didn’t react at all over the loss of
fellow citizens. No one seemed to have lost any sleep as to whether
these young servicemen died in vain or not.Also, those supposed to be
opinion makers by influencing situations for the better simply spouted
on the Somali issue by regurgitating what they have been fed by the
powers of the “New World Order.” Despite the immense
disappointment, I wasn’t daunted by this.So, I continued for some time
to show the flip side of the coin to the best of my abilities.Accordingly,
Daily Monitor graced me with a column by publishing “Is it peace
mission or war business?” August 24, 2007.Then “The bleeding Horn of
Africa” October 1, 2007 to name but a few.
As it became crystal clear that the government of Uganda has
committed itself in Somalia to a point of no return against the backdrop
of its indifferent constituents, I gave up belaboring the point.
Unfortunately, the intractable problem of the Somali issue itself didn’t
give up.Rather, on the evening of July 11, 2010, it jostled me with a
rude awakening. On that fateful night, after watching the first half of the
match for about fifteen minutes, I retired to my bedroom, dead sure that
the Dutch team would never make it to the cup. Around 11; 30 P.M, my
cell phone shrilled. It was Arne Doornebal, a Dutch friend of mine who
happens to be a freelance journalist based in Uganda. I thought he called
to tell me that his national team won the trophy. Instead, he asked me in
a somewhat agitated voice “Where’re you?” When I told him that I was
asleep in my place at Nakulabye, he said “there’s a rumor of a bomb
blast—a big one--at the Ethiopian Village. Have you heard about it; do
you know anyone there?” In my half awake and hazy state, I only
grasped two words; Ethiopia and bomb! I replied while coming out of
the haze “sure I know many people” whereupon he asked me to get
back to him as soon as I got detailed information.Then,I did the funniest
thing; I sent text messages to my folks in Addis./hope Zenawi will still
be gracious enough not to disable SMS again after debriefing one of his
goons who reads this/.Anyway, the reply I got assured me nothing of
the kind happened in the area where my folks live; nor have they heard
anything to that effect about other areas. When I relayed this message to
Arne, he called again and after making sure that I was wide awake,
which I was by that time, told me that the explosion happened right here
in Kampala at the Ethiopian Village Restaurant. That time, I have already
abandoned my sweet dream. Thus, I went to the living room and turned
on the TV set.UBC was still televising the victory of the Spaniards. The
other channels were either playing music or showing movie.However,
the 11 o’clock news on NTV was still on, albeit with no news about the
explosion. Dying to know the truth, I sent SMS to a Ugandan journalist
friend of mine, Timothy Kalyegira, who replied immediately with scary
breaking news. He informed me that the explosion didn’t only take place
at the Ethiopian Village but also at a rugby club called Kyadondo which
was established to inculcate a culture of rugger-buggers in Uganda
according to Charles Onyango-Obbo, a renowned journalist. As the
saying goes that blood is thicker than water, my first concern was for
fellow Ethiopians, particularly my friends who are football fans and also
frequent the Ethiopian Village where the first bomb went off. Upon the
insistence of these friends, I myself watched the match between Ghana
and Australia there enjoying a cold Club under a big tree in front of the
big screen. Miraculously that night almost all of them changed venue
and watched the finals at Pickles. The few who were there survived
without a scratch.Tragically, however, I learned the next morning that
some acquaintances of mine perished in the blast; one from Ethiopia,
one from Eritrea. My wife too learned that two of her Ugandan
acquaintances from the Seventh Day Adventist Church she goes to
every Saturday lost their lives at the Kyadando Rugby blast.
Terrorism vis-à-vis Islamic extremism
Whenever the need arises, I hasten to explain that I know
nothing about the religion of Islam despite being born from a Muslim
family on the paternal side. My father himself/RIP/was no better than
me in spite of the fact that both his parents were devout Muslims. I
think his induction into modern education and later his exposure to the
outside world through the Ethiopian Air force that took him for further
training to the United States and other countries on various missions,
combined to make him the most liberal man. Education in the good old
days had that kind of effect on one who goes through it. If not
enlightening completely, at least, it was capable of freeing one from
parochialism.However, this is not to mean that those who were not
educated were less tolerant of other people. It’s not to imply either that
those devout Muslims were fanatic to the point of harboring ill will to
others of a different faith. In fact, throughout my upbringing in a mixed
culture both ethnically and religiously, I witnessed and enjoyed a higher
degree of tolerance from my Muslim grandparents than my Orthodox
Christian grandparents on the maternal side. I am proud to say that I
saw this peace loving nature on other Ethiopian Muslims too. For this
reason, Chrisitians and Muslims coexisted peacefully in Ethiopia for
many centuries. I don’t think one can tell a different story about other
Muslims anywhere in the world. When one makes a cursory research
on history, one is likely to come up with the persecution of Muslims and
Jews more than any other sect in this world. In Ethiopia, for instance,
Emperor Yohannes IV accompanied his decree for a compulsory
baptism to Orthodox Christianity with his infamous epithet “The sky has
no horizon; nor a Muslim any land in his possession.”However, this in
no way will diminish the fact that Ethiopia was the first African country
whereby followers of Islam sought refuge under the edict of Prophet
Mohammed when persecuted in Arabia. Save for periodic minor
frictions, perhaps that’s the reason Christians and Muslims are able to
coexist in perfect harmony. Of course, some incidents were recorded in
history here and there whereby Islam also enjoyed a field day by forcing
people to convert. Notable among them was the rise of Ahmed Ibin
Ibrahim, aka Gragn/left handed/Mohammed.Gragn rose to power with
an Operation code-named Habasha Al-fatwa or conquering Habasha to
the will of Allah. Apart from this exception in Ethiopian history, the
official show has always been Christian. With all its unsavory
characteristics, it was Derg, the military rule of Mengistu H/Mariam that
gave recognition to the religion of Islam by proclaiming Muslim holidays
as national holidays. In so doing, Derg effectively stamped out the
notion that Ethiopia is an enclave of Christianity thereby introducing
genuine secularism.
The history of Islam elsewhere in the world is not that different
either. One of the people who were forcibly converted into Catholicism
during the Spanish Inquisition was followers of Islam. When one delves
into history books, one learns that those who refused to be converted
were condemned to be burnt at stake. Even books supposed to be
heretic used to be burned just like Al-shabab bans people in Somalia
from listening to music or watching football in this era of 21st century.
Before venturing my opinion on the reason that caused such a
regression into egregious fanaticism, I would like to deal with the brand
of terrorism that’s linked with Islam. On October 14, 2008, I saw the
interview of an eighteen year old Palestinian girl trained as suicide
bomber for Hamas on BBC television. She was married to a young man
who was twenty three, also a suicidal Hamas fighter. Because what she
said fascinated me to this day, I jotted it down in my diary. She said
“Chances to become a martyr is a gift from God.” When asked whether
she has any concern for innocent civilians, among them could be
women and children, she replied coolly “that’s not important because
the children would become soldiers when they grow up.” We could
easily have dismissed this as a warped mentality of an individual.Yet,the
number of individuals who believe or brainwashed like this seem to be
on the rise all over the world.Why?Is Islam, the religion to be blamed
for such heinous fanaticism? Ironically, this type of firebrand fanatics
for the most part have been educated or trained in the West or have
some kind of exposure to the so-called liberal societies. Even during the
cold war, most third world revolutionaries hell bent to change the
system in their respective countries by badmouthing American
imperialism with a slogan “Yankee go home!” were often the
byproducts of Western liberalism. At least, that’s how it was in my
country. At any rate, the young and beautiful Palestinian suicide bomber
set me to thinking for a long time. And guess what I came across one
day while searching on Google? Prophet Mohammed’s quip!
Apparently, he said at one time that “The ink of the scholar is more
sacred than the blood of the martyr.” This profound and insightful
utterance not only renounces violent and bloody martyrdom. But also
highlights the importance of respect for freedom of thought and
expression.
Terrorism as a tool in other cultures
Before attempting to find out about terrorism perpetrated by
other people than Muslims, I searched for what acts constitute
“terrorism.”Although, different nations have come up with their own
version of terrorism depending upon the socio-political temperature in
their backyard, all agree that a violent act that deliberately target or
disregard the safety of non-combatants or civilians is an act of
terrorism. Seen in this context, one can hardly find an innocent party
from those that vowed to stamp out terrorism from the face of the
earth. United States that invariably postures itself as fountain of liberty,
justice and democracy always finds it difficult to condemn the excesses
of Israel against innocent Palestinian bystanders and other Arab civilians
whose nations are in perennial collision course with Israel. Until Saddam
Hussein refused to be at beck and call for Washington, his using
mustard gas against Kurdish civilians and America’s nemesis, Iran hadn’
t only been ignored.Rather, it was encouraged with the flow of
weapons. The Taliban that America fights today through indiscriminate
bombing of civilians is its own creation during the Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan in the early 1980s.Almost all the Western media glorified the
Mujahadeens of that time. During my impressionable age, I myself read
a fictional work by Ken Follet whereby he romanticized the Talibans in a
book titled “Lie down with lions.” I wonder if had authored today
another fictional work that demonizes the same Talibans so extolled to
the sky during the rivalry in the cold war. While this was how some of
the intractable terrorism was hatched, history had recorded sectarian
terrorism right in the heart of Europe too. The Irish Republican
Army/IRA/, during its struggle against British rule from the early 1960s
up to the late 1990s, used all ruthless methods available by targeting
Protestant civilians. The British government directly and through its
surrogates whom the IRA dubbed as loyalists also retaliated by targeting
innocent Irish Catholic civilians. When one studies the methods used by
IRA to gain its objective, one can’t help but feel that Al-shabab and
company copied something from it. In a bid to turn British public
opinion against the government for deploying troops in Ireland, IRA
took its bombing right in the heart of London whereby it killed scores of
civilians and destroyed substantial property along with an attempt on the
life of Margaret Thatcher.Though, the “iron lady” survived, other
dignitaries that had been with her were not that lucky.IRA Carried out
attacks in countries such as West Germany, Belgium and the
Netherlands where British soldiers were based. On top of killing eight
soldiers in one of these attacks, IRA also gunned down six civilians
including the British Ambassador to the Netherlands, Sir Richard Sykes.
Most amazing of all, one of the sources that IRA procured its weapons
was Libya! Yet, the State Department of America procrastinated to label
IRA as a terrorist group. The Basque separatist group in Spain and
France too had almost the same history of targeting indiscriminately.
When you read books by Noam Chomsky and John Pilger,you will be
marveled by revelations that exposes the hypocrisies of the Western
world.Chomsky,for instance, tells us that Bill Clinton flew with Al
Qaeda and Hezbollah operatives to buttress his side of the war in Bosnia.
/Hegemony or survival,pg 35/.Apart from detailing the sponsoring of
State terrorism in many Latin American countries, Chomsky also
exposed how the Bush I administration pardoned in 1989 a notorious
anti-Castro Cuban terrorist, Orlando Bosch,who was accused of
masterminding the bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner in 1976.
Seventy three innocent civilians died due to this bombing on the Cuban
Airliner.Yet,the Bush/the father/administration granted asylum against
the advise of its Justice Department to this terrorist./Intervention,pg 68/.
While I am writing this, I witnessed how David Cameron, the new
Prime Minister of Britain and Barack Hussein Obama of America
expressed their regret over the release of the dying Libyan man
convicted and jailed for the Pan Am bombing at Lockerbie, allegedly
through the lobbying of the oil company,BP.At any rate, all the
adventure America and its ally, Britain engaged in since 9/11,didn’t make
the world a better place to live in. If anything, Al Qaeda supposed to be
confined and obliterated by the bombings of the Torah bora mountain,
has spread from Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia, stretching all the way
to Nigeria.Meanwhile, kids born in America, Australia, Canada and the
like who are supposed to embrace all the glamour of Western values are
shunning it to join either the rag-tag nomadic Jihadists in Somalia or the
Kaftan wearing Talibans in the mountains of Afghanistan. Could the
double standard of the Western society have reached such a peak to
drive otherwise sane and ambitious Western born kids to such
desperation? Contrary to Thomas Friedman’s assertion, these are not
super-empowered angry people from religious totalitarian States who did
their post-graduation in Madras. Leaving the Western “pundits” to
reflect on this, I would like to cite another example of the Western
world’s deception and subterfuge to invade Iraq on the pretext of
dismantling weapons of mass destruction/WMD/.To confuse public
opinion all over the world in what Chomsky aptly termed “consent
engineering,” even thriller writers such as Frederick Forsyth got
involved in the deception by churning out a plausible fiction that makes
it difficult not to believe that Saddam Hussein had no WMD.Forsyth’s
book that I have come to regard as part of the grand deception was
titled “Fist of God.” Now to the thorny issue in our backyard, Somalia!
Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopia fanning the fire in Somalia
To be fair to the regime in Ethiopia that came to power in May
1991, it’s imperative to state at the outset that the Somali problem has
always been there before its ascension to power. Like most similar
problems in Africa that causes fratricidal war, the genesis of the Somali
problem dates back to the colonial era. During the European Scramble
for Africa, there were three powers vying for Somali territory; Britain,
France and Italy.However, Ethiopia at the behest of Emperor Menilik II
prevented the colonial powers from having an easy ride by claiming
Ogaden as part of Ethiopia.Although, the Italians were active in Ogaden
which lies between Ethiopia and the coastal part of Somalia, no imperial
power formally controlled the region. The battle of Adwa in which the
Italians suffered a humiliating defeat settled the matter, at least
temporarily. The colonial powers acceded to the demands of Ethiopia on
Ogaden since Italy had been rendered irrelevant by the defeat.
Unfortunately, there came World War II, where Fascist Italy managed
to get even by occupying the whole of Ethiopia for five years. When
Ethiopia regained its independence, the issue of Eritrea along with other
former Italian colonies was tabled at the UN tribunal. Along the way, the
issue of Ogaden was resolved and once again made to be incorporated
with Ethiopia. Prior to that,however,Britain in its grand imperial strategy
had the desire to gobble up all territories adjacent to the British
Somaliland whereby the idea of “The Greater Somalia”germinated.
Although,all colonialists including Britain left Africa, the time bomb they
left behind started exploding after independence.Accordingly,Somalia
contrary to the African Union/AU/-then it was OAU- charter and other
international laws, immediately embarked in the realization of the dream
to unify all Somali speaking people under the same banner. In spite of
the fact that Kenya and Djibouti too have a substantial number of Somali
communities, and thus supposed to be incorporated within “The Greater
Somalia,” Somalia had never launched a military adventure into these
countries.Conversely, Somalia had twice blundered into Ethiopia; in
1964 and 1977.Red sea and the Nile river made it a top priority for
various external powers to goad Somalia into invading Ethiopia.
The second incursion of Somalia into Ethiopia posed a
real danger for it took place while Ethiopia was in the crossroads due to
the 1974 popular revolution that accidentally brought the military to
power. The Provisional Military Administrative Council/PMAC/a.k.a
Derg was confronted with a myriad of problems before it resolved its
legitimacy problem through the emergence of a strongman called
Mengistu H/Mariam. The Eritrean rebels controlled many areas in Eritrea
while other forms of insurgency mushroomed in provincial towns as
well as in the Capital city. United States that had been an ally of Emperor
Haile Selassie suspended the delivery of weapons, such as fighter
aircrafts and tanks, allegedly paid for in advance. Using this opportune
moment, Somalia launched its invasion and caused havoc for some time
until the tide of war soon tilted to Ethiopia’s side. Although, Siad Barre’s
force was routed and expelled, it still went on mounting hit and run
attacks directly and through a rebel force called Western Somali
Liberation Front/WSLF/.To minimize the battle fronts that stretched
Ethiopia’s resources from Eritrea to Ogaden, Derg apparently came up
with a plot that drove a wedge between Somalis. Consequently, Siad
Barre got toppled whereupon all the floodgates of anarchy were opened.
As a result, Somalia ceased to be a security threat to Ethiopia worthy
enough to send troops into its territory. Of course, this conspiracy
theory allegedly spun by the then rulers of Ethiopia to the detriment of
Somalia, has never been confirmed officially by those privy to the inner
council of the Derg.What can’t be disputed is that many Somalis have
been victims of the “Greater Somalia” propaganda and that most feel
that Ethiopia is their “historical enemy.” Thus, to them the invasion of
Ethiopia by Somalia was a righteous and sometimes holy war. At any
rate, right after Somalia became no more as a State, the military regime
in Ethiopia too crumbled paving the way for today’s rulers that postured
themselves as ally in the war against terror. In the bush war that
catapulted them to power, they used all ruthless methods imaginable,
ranging from recruiting children, using civilians as shields from air
bombardment that they knew would surely come. In fact, they
videotaped these bombardments with the foreknowledge they had
instead of evacuating the villagers or advising them to take shelter. They
used the films to rouse the anger of the peasantry for en masse
voluntary recruitment while swindling money from those living in exile.
On top of destroying infrastructures and storming banks, they also
committed a crime of kidnapping of foreigners for publicity and
extortion purposes, without mentioning their diversion of funds meant
for victims of famine. One of the kidnapping victims, Jon Swain
published a book about his own and an entire British family’s experience
as hostages in the hands of today’s Ethiopia’s rulers./For further detail,
see The Sunday Times, November 22,2009/. Martin Plaut of the BBC,
on the other hand, uncovered how they diverted aid money for the
purchase of weapons during their Stalinist days. In short, one can come
up with a voluminous history of the terror tactics applied so ruthlessly
during their insurgency. To be pertinent for the matter at hand, though,
I would cite a couple of examples on how the Meles Zenawi regime
thrives on State terrorism.
When TPLF/Tigray People Liberation Front/took over
Addis Ababa in tandem with EPLF/Eritrean People Liberation Front/,
then comrade-in-arms, made it their first priority to instill fear among
the cosmopolitan populace whom they regard as a bastion of “Amhara
chauvinism.” Among the tactics they used were to ignite the various
ammunition depots situated long ago in what’s supposed to be the
peripheries of the Capital whereby they were neglected to be relocated
as the city expanded due to the growing size of the population. The
similarity in which all of these ammunition depots turned into a ball of
fire was uncanny. In one of this explosion, the BBC photographer,
Mohammed Amin a.k.a Mo lost his arm.Ironically, a few years later, Mo
lost his life in a hijacking drama on an Ethiopian Airlines flight that ended
up by going down in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros Island. The
hijacking of that flight is still shrouded in mystery wherein the surviving
cockpit crews are still ill at ease to talk about it in detail. At any rate,
TPLF which transformed itself as the Transitional government blamed
the explosion on an opposition group formed in exile some of whose
members hadn’t seen their country for over three decades. When a
conference took place in June 1991 to form the so-called Transitional
government, TPLF handpicked the participants while excluding others.
Among those excluded was the exiled opposition group blamed for the
explosion on the ammunition depots with a label as “terrorist and
warmonger” therefore unworthy to take part in the “democratization”
process.Without mentioning the purge that took place in the jungle by
consuming the life of its own members, TPLF also eliminated some
renegades after coming to power. First among this was Mulu Alem who
challenged the leadership over its tribalism that sought to impose the
minority Tigray ethnic group over the majority. He paid dearly for it by a
bomb detonated in his office which was blamed on Chauvinist Amharas
and “anti-peace” elements. And so whenever the regime feels that the
public is about to go out of control, it inspires fear by fabricating terror
stories which at times is carried out by stage managing it through its
own agents.Then,the blame will be shifted on those dissidents and
opposition groups that won the respect of the people. In this way, Prof.
Asrat Woldeyes, Mr.Berhane Mewa, Dr.Taye Woldesemayat, Dr.
Berhanu Nega, Mr.Andargachew Tsige and prominent Ethiopians from
the Oromo ethnic group along with the political or civil society they led
were effectively ostracized. When the international community refused
to be swayed by this tactic of Meles and company during the 2005
rigged election; in fact, when it was on the verge of passing sanction,
Meles Zenawi grabbed the opportunity that appeared out of nowhere like
a manna from the heaven. The Islamic Courts Union/ICU/, to the
distaste of the Western world, particularly, United States, captured
Mogadishu.
Despite the understanding between IGAD member countries that
whatever peacekeeping force is needed in Somalia that it shouldn’t be
from neighboring countries, Meles Zenawi was given the green light to
meddle in the affairs of Somalia. In so doing, he went down in history
as the first Ethiopian ruler who invaded other people’s territory without
any mandate from the Ethiopian people. As there was no justification for
poking his nose in Somalia, he gave contradictory statements for
unleashing his henchmen in Mogadishu. Initially, he said he was there to
nip an imminent terrorist attack in the bud. Then, he changed tack and
said he was there at the invitation of the Transitional government. The
real motive was to deflect the international community’s attention from
his gross human rights violation following the election debacle. It was
also to ingratiate himself with the Western world by posturing as a key
ally in the war against terror.Because,the international community has
totally underestimated to what extent bad blood run between Somalis
and Ethiopians on account of Ogaden vis-à-vis The “Greater Somalia”,
Al-shabab has been strengthened by those young Somalis previously
indifferent, even opposed to Islamic extremism.And,then there is the
Eritrean factor which not only emerged as a newly State in the past
twenty years but also another problem child of Africa thanks to the
myopic sight of the “international community.” As Issayas Afeworki of
Eritrea has an axe to grind with Meles over a senseless border issue for
which he feels the international community has let him down/on this
point truth is with Issayas,for the border commission awarded him with
a decision/he thinks it serves his purpose to take a stance against Meles
on the Somali issue.Although,I don’t believe Eritrea is in any position to
finance and arm Al-shabab to the teeth as alleged by the UN resolution
to pass sanction on Asmara, it’s obvious that Eritrea has been using
Meles’s blunder in Somalia to its advantage. Still, I am of the opinion
that the role of Eritrea in Somalia hadn’t been that significant to the
extent of strengthening Al-shabab thereby warranting the sanction on
Asmara. The so-called international community picked an easy target to
vent its frustration on Somalia.Becuase of this failure to face the truth
squarely; Al-shabab brought the war on our doorstep right here in
Kampala.
Multifaceted profiteering on terrorism
At this juncture, I would like to make myself clear on one
crucial point. Despite Al-shabab’s belated claim of responsibility on the
gruesome mass murder of July 11, I share the sentiments of those who
doubt as to whether it was really the workings of Al-shabab.My reason
is simple.1.Those who call the shots in the “New World Order” have
been engaged in deception and subterfuge for long that I can’t trust
them anymore until I see that their and their adversaries allegation
withstand the test of time. To name but a few, they told us that there
was WMD in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein was a threat to international
security.And, it turned out to be a blatant lie.2.I have seen time and
again that the Western world can do business with any form of
dictatorship or extremism without any qualms so long as it doesn’t run
counter with its interest. After all, Sheik Sharif, the current “President”
of Somalia has once been branded terrorist. The Western world,
particularly America, has never condemned a dictator on the lofty
grounds of human rights or good governance. If that was the case
Robert Mugabe wouldn’t have been painted so black while Meles
Zenawi is allowed to hobnob with the big wigs in the power corridors of
the Western world. The cordial relationship between the Western world
and the religious totalitarian State of Saudi Arabia vis-à-vis the souring
of relations with Iran cannot be explained in any other way either.3.The
Western world always finds it alright to fight “terrorism” with those
dictators who terrorize their own people. As it transpires now, some of
these dictators such as the late Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines
masterminded their own terrorist attacks by bombing department stores,
private companies, water works even government buildings to impose
martial law on the pretext of averting a communist takeover thereby
gaining the sympathy of Washington. /see “World on Fire” by Amy
Chua pg 154/.I have no doubt in my mind that Meles Zenawi has been
engaged in this type of ruthlessness ever since he came to power. If
there was any security threat from the war torn Somalia, Ethiopia was
perfectly capable of preempting it without the need for incursion into
other people’s territory.4.If the rugby club and Ethiopian village had
been blasted by suicidal bombers, why the need to make mass arrest on
foreigners? After all, one of the reason suicidal bombers are sent to this
sort of mission is because of the need to maintain absolute secrecy,
before and after the mission. Suicidal mission is not only about finding
those who are willing to be martyred. Since a suicidal bomber is happy
to blow him/herself, there is no need to share the details of the mission
with anyone except those who give the command from the headquarter.
Obviously, Al-shabab’s or Al-Qaeda’s headquarter is not in Kampala, at
least, not yet.Therefore, I consider the sweeping arrest of people of
various nationalities as a desperate action taken to propitiate the
simmering wrath of the Ugandan public. In the name of sharing
information on intelligence, it’s also a perfect opportunity for the
Ethiopian regime to witch hunt dissidents who sought refuge in Uganda.
Particularly in danger are those from the Ogaden, a Somali region of
Ethiopia and Ethiopians of Oromo ethnic group with an Islamic
background or Arabic sounding name like this writer has. There is
ample precedence for this sort of gross human rights violation on the
pretext of fighting terrorism. Notable among them was the case of
Binyam Mohammed, a former Ethiopian turned a British national, who
was arrested and tortured on the basis of a confession of another man
obtained under duress. The “civilized” British intelligence officers played
a great deal of part in the sad story of Binyam.I also remember the case
of a Sudanese photographer for Aljazeera who had been interned in
Guantanamo only to be found innocent years later. Among the terror
suspects detained in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq whereby
American soldiers abused them with impunity, it now emerged that
ninety percent of them were innocent.Therefore,dictators who are in the
habit of persecuting and witch hunting benefit in many ways out of
terrorism; real or stage managed terrorism by their own agents.
As I always maintain, it has been bad enough for Uganda to rush
into Somalia where angels even fear to tread without considering many
variables. All I hope now is that it’s President hasn’t taken any bad
advice from his counterpart, Meles Zenawi, during his last brief stay in
Addis Ababa to attend a meeting called by IGAD.From his past record,
there’s no doubt that he would dare to whisper into Mzee’s ear “you
can shake off this Americans who nag you to fire the chairman of your
election commission for “free and fair election” by deflecting their
attention like I did.”Thankfully, I can vouch for Mzee that whatever
problem he has he wouldn’t stoop this low due to a certain quality I
noticed as a statesman that unfortunately the man in the Menilik palace
in my country never had and never will.
Why postpone, what’s inevitable?
The war in Somalia can be summed up as “rich man’s war,
poor man’s fight.” If the Western world finds a means to tame Al-
shabab fighters into working for its benefit so that the passage for oil
and other sources of interest will be free from security threat, I am sure
it’s ready to bury the hatchet and do business with it regardless of its
extreme form of Islamism. As I was concluding this writing, a
conference was taking place in Kabul, Capital of Afghanistan. In a bid to
find an honorable exit for those Western nations involved in
Afghanistan, Taliban fighters were offered money and job if they lay
down their guns. This shows that the Western world is unable to
conquer the Talibans through its sheer technological might. After the
July 11 bomb blast in Kampala, President Museveni indicated that the
forces behind Al-shabab are somewhere in the Middle East. Unlike
Eritrea whom Uganda and its “partners” in the fight against terror
blamed for the sake of venting their frustration over the failure in
Somalia, the President shied away from naming who exactly backs Al-
shabab in the Middle East. Whichever way you look at it, Uganda and
Burundi, two poorest nations of Africa, are up against an invisible
enemy which they are even afraid to name. Yet, they still obstinately
maintain that they got involved in Mogadishu in the spirit of Pan-
Africanism. Rather than assessing the Somali issue objectively, Uganda
in particular is readying to clamor for mandate change from
“peacekeeping to peace enforcing in the upcoming AU summit.”
Although, it’s not clear for me what one can enforce what’s not there, I
take it to mean a demand for permission so that UPDF/AMISOM/
engages Al-shabab in a counter attack. Believing Norbert Mao’s
assessment of the President at one time, I thought the Ugandan
government would refrain from manifesting sheer bravado. Mao said
“He/President Museveni/does not fight many wars at a go or open many
fronts at the same time.”/Sunday Vision September 2, 2007/. Without
concluding the war with LRA decisively, how does the Ugandan
government expect to flush out Al-shabab whose rules of engagement is
senseless and devoid of humanity. Ayn Rand author of ‘The
Fountainhead’ observed “The trouble with you, my dear and with most
people, is that you don’t have sufficient respect for the senseless—You
have no chance if it’s your enemy.” But who is senseless here? At any
rate, while the big powers are readying to pack and leave from the
Middle East, I don’t think it’s right for Uganda to sink further into a
quagmire for which the international community is reluctant to find a
solution by addressing its root cause. I am afraid, Uganda’s further
staying with more involvement in Somalia would only postpone what’s
inevitable; and that’s fleeing ultimately like Meles’s henchmen after
sustaining heavy casualty in vain.
May the dead as well as the living rest in eternal peace
An Ethiopian Refugee in Uganda
E-mail: kiflukam@yahoo.com
Author's Previous Article
Role of media in democracy vs pseudo democracy
labeled "terrorists"
26 July, 2010 | By Kiflu Hussain
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Like many of my countrymen who tasted the brunt of
brutal suppression in the most cynical Machiavelli style rule
under Meles Zenawi, I do know that what he touches or where
treads will not be peaceful. On the contrary, what he does in
collusion with the big powers of the world, may turn Somalia
into Africa’s Lebanon, and Ethiopia into Africa’s Syria.So,I am
afraid the bombs will go on to wreak much havoc.”
Introduction
- What’s quoted above
from my own letter
was written while I
was a four month
novice in Kampala. It
was prompted by a
high ranking Ugandan
officer’s remark
wherein he belittled the
action of the Islamists
that consumed five
lives who went down
as the first Ugandan
explosion that killed these soldiers as “a kick of a dying horse.” To my
utter disappointment, the public which enjoys a free flow of information
that is unthinkable in my country didn’t react at all over the loss of
fellow citizens. No one seemed to have lost any sleep as to whether
these young servicemen died in vain or not.Also, those supposed to be
opinion makers by influencing situations for the better simply spouted
on the Somali issue by regurgitating what they have been fed by the
powers of the “New World Order.” Despite the immense
disappointment, I wasn’t daunted by this.So, I continued for some time
to show the flip side of the coin to the best of my abilities.Accordingly,
Daily Monitor graced me with a column by publishing “Is it peace
mission or war business?” August 24, 2007.Then “The bleeding Horn of
Africa” October 1, 2007 to name but a few.
As it became crystal clear that the government of Uganda has
committed itself in Somalia to a point of no return against the backdrop
of its indifferent constituents, I gave up belaboring the point.
Unfortunately, the intractable problem of the Somali issue itself didn’t
give up.Rather, on the evening of July 11, 2010, it jostled me with a
rude awakening. On that fateful night, after watching the first half of the
match for about fifteen minutes, I retired to my bedroom, dead sure that
the Dutch team would never make it to the cup. Around 11; 30 P.M, my
cell phone shrilled. It was Arne Doornebal, a Dutch friend of mine who
happens to be a freelance journalist based in Uganda. I thought he called
to tell me that his national team won the trophy. Instead, he asked me in
a somewhat agitated voice “Where’re you?” When I told him that I was
asleep in my place at Nakulabye, he said “there’s a rumor of a bomb
blast—a big one--at the Ethiopian Village. Have you heard about it; do
you know anyone there?” In my half awake and hazy state, I only
grasped two words; Ethiopia and bomb! I replied while coming out of
the haze “sure I know many people” whereupon he asked me to get
back to him as soon as I got detailed information.Then,I did the funniest
thing; I sent text messages to my folks in Addis./hope Zenawi will still
be gracious enough not to disable SMS again after debriefing one of his
goons who reads this/.Anyway, the reply I got assured me nothing of
the kind happened in the area where my folks live; nor have they heard
anything to that effect about other areas. When I relayed this message to
Arne, he called again and after making sure that I was wide awake,
which I was by that time, told me that the explosion happened right here
in Kampala at the Ethiopian Village Restaurant. That time, I have already
abandoned my sweet dream. Thus, I went to the living room and turned
on the TV set.UBC was still televising the victory of the Spaniards. The
other channels were either playing music or showing movie.However,
the 11 o’clock news on NTV was still on, albeit with no news about the
explosion. Dying to know the truth, I sent SMS to a Ugandan journalist
friend of mine, Timothy Kalyegira, who replied immediately with scary
breaking news. He informed me that the explosion didn’t only take place
at the Ethiopian Village but also at a rugby club called Kyadondo which
was established to inculcate a culture of rugger-buggers in Uganda
according to Charles Onyango-Obbo, a renowned journalist. As the
saying goes that blood is thicker than water, my first concern was for
fellow Ethiopians, particularly my friends who are football fans and also
frequent the Ethiopian Village where the first bomb went off. Upon the
insistence of these friends, I myself watched the match between Ghana
and Australia there enjoying a cold Club under a big tree in front of the
big screen. Miraculously that night almost all of them changed venue
and watched the finals at Pickles. The few who were there survived
without a scratch.Tragically, however, I learned the next morning that
some acquaintances of mine perished in the blast; one from Ethiopia,
one from Eritrea. My wife too learned that two of her Ugandan
acquaintances from the Seventh Day Adventist Church she goes to
every Saturday lost their lives at the Kyadando Rugby blast.
Terrorism vis-à-vis Islamic extremism
Whenever the need arises, I hasten to explain that I know
nothing about the religion of Islam despite being born from a Muslim
family on the paternal side. My father himself/RIP/was no better than
me in spite of the fact that both his parents were devout Muslims. I
think his induction into modern education and later his exposure to the
outside world through the Ethiopian Air force that took him for further
training to the United States and other countries on various missions,
combined to make him the most liberal man. Education in the good old
days had that kind of effect on one who goes through it. If not
enlightening completely, at least, it was capable of freeing one from
parochialism.However, this is not to mean that those who were not
educated were less tolerant of other people. It’s not to imply either that
those devout Muslims were fanatic to the point of harboring ill will to
others of a different faith. In fact, throughout my upbringing in a mixed
culture both ethnically and religiously, I witnessed and enjoyed a higher
degree of tolerance from my Muslim grandparents than my Orthodox
Christian grandparents on the maternal side. I am proud to say that I
saw this peace loving nature on other Ethiopian Muslims too. For this
reason, Chrisitians and Muslims coexisted peacefully in Ethiopia for
many centuries. I don’t think one can tell a different story about other
Muslims anywhere in the world. When one makes a cursory research
on history, one is likely to come up with the persecution of Muslims and
Jews more than any other sect in this world. In Ethiopia, for instance,
Emperor Yohannes IV accompanied his decree for a compulsory
baptism to Orthodox Christianity with his infamous epithet “The sky has
no horizon; nor a Muslim any land in his possession.”However, this in
no way will diminish the fact that Ethiopia was the first African country
whereby followers of Islam sought refuge under the edict of Prophet
Mohammed when persecuted in Arabia. Save for periodic minor
frictions, perhaps that’s the reason Christians and Muslims are able to
coexist in perfect harmony. Of course, some incidents were recorded in
history here and there whereby Islam also enjoyed a field day by forcing
people to convert. Notable among them was the rise of Ahmed Ibin
Ibrahim, aka Gragn/left handed/Mohammed.Gragn rose to power with
an Operation code-named Habasha Al-fatwa or conquering Habasha to
the will of Allah. Apart from this exception in Ethiopian history, the
official show has always been Christian. With all its unsavory
characteristics, it was Derg, the military rule of Mengistu H/Mariam that
gave recognition to the religion of Islam by proclaiming Muslim holidays
as national holidays. In so doing, Derg effectively stamped out the
notion that Ethiopia is an enclave of Christianity thereby introducing
genuine secularism.
The history of Islam elsewhere in the world is not that different
either. One of the people who were forcibly converted into Catholicism
during the Spanish Inquisition was followers of Islam. When one delves
into history books, one learns that those who refused to be converted
were condemned to be burnt at stake. Even books supposed to be
heretic used to be burned just like Al-shabab bans people in Somalia
from listening to music or watching football in this era of 21st century.
Before venturing my opinion on the reason that caused such a
regression into egregious fanaticism, I would like to deal with the brand
of terrorism that’s linked with Islam. On October 14, 2008, I saw the
interview of an eighteen year old Palestinian girl trained as suicide
bomber for Hamas on BBC television. She was married to a young man
who was twenty three, also a suicidal Hamas fighter. Because what she
said fascinated me to this day, I jotted it down in my diary. She said
“Chances to become a martyr is a gift from God.” When asked whether
she has any concern for innocent civilians, among them could be
women and children, she replied coolly “that’s not important because
the children would become soldiers when they grow up.” We could
easily have dismissed this as a warped mentality of an individual.Yet,the
number of individuals who believe or brainwashed like this seem to be
on the rise all over the world.Why?Is Islam, the religion to be blamed
for such heinous fanaticism? Ironically, this type of firebrand fanatics
for the most part have been educated or trained in the West or have
some kind of exposure to the so-called liberal societies. Even during the
cold war, most third world revolutionaries hell bent to change the
system in their respective countries by badmouthing American
imperialism with a slogan “Yankee go home!” were often the
byproducts of Western liberalism. At least, that’s how it was in my
country. At any rate, the young and beautiful Palestinian suicide bomber
set me to thinking for a long time. And guess what I came across one
day while searching on Google? Prophet Mohammed’s quip!
Apparently, he said at one time that “The ink of the scholar is more
sacred than the blood of the martyr.” This profound and insightful
utterance not only renounces violent and bloody martyrdom. But also
highlights the importance of respect for freedom of thought and
expression.
Terrorism as a tool in other cultures
Before attempting to find out about terrorism perpetrated by
other people than Muslims, I searched for what acts constitute
“terrorism.”Although, different nations have come up with their own
version of terrorism depending upon the socio-political temperature in
their backyard, all agree that a violent act that deliberately target or
disregard the safety of non-combatants or civilians is an act of
terrorism. Seen in this context, one can hardly find an innocent party
from those that vowed to stamp out terrorism from the face of the
earth. United States that invariably postures itself as fountain of liberty,
justice and democracy always finds it difficult to condemn the excesses
of Israel against innocent Palestinian bystanders and other Arab civilians
whose nations are in perennial collision course with Israel. Until Saddam
Hussein refused to be at beck and call for Washington, his using
mustard gas against Kurdish civilians and America’s nemesis, Iran hadn’
t only been ignored.Rather, it was encouraged with the flow of
weapons. The Taliban that America fights today through indiscriminate
bombing of civilians is its own creation during the Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan in the early 1980s.Almost all the Western media glorified the
Mujahadeens of that time. During my impressionable age, I myself read
a fictional work by Ken Follet whereby he romanticized the Talibans in a
book titled “Lie down with lions.” I wonder if had authored today
another fictional work that demonizes the same Talibans so extolled to
the sky during the rivalry in the cold war. While this was how some of
the intractable terrorism was hatched, history had recorded sectarian
terrorism right in the heart of Europe too. The Irish Republican
Army/IRA/, during its struggle against British rule from the early 1960s
up to the late 1990s, used all ruthless methods available by targeting
Protestant civilians. The British government directly and through its
surrogates whom the IRA dubbed as loyalists also retaliated by targeting
innocent Irish Catholic civilians. When one studies the methods used by
IRA to gain its objective, one can’t help but feel that Al-shabab and
company copied something from it. In a bid to turn British public
opinion against the government for deploying troops in Ireland, IRA
took its bombing right in the heart of London whereby it killed scores of
civilians and destroyed substantial property along with an attempt on the
life of Margaret Thatcher.Though, the “iron lady” survived, other
dignitaries that had been with her were not that lucky.IRA Carried out
attacks in countries such as West Germany, Belgium and the
Netherlands where British soldiers were based. On top of killing eight
soldiers in one of these attacks, IRA also gunned down six civilians
including the British Ambassador to the Netherlands, Sir Richard Sykes.
Most amazing of all, one of the sources that IRA procured its weapons
was Libya! Yet, the State Department of America procrastinated to label
IRA as a terrorist group. The Basque separatist group in Spain and
France too had almost the same history of targeting indiscriminately.
When you read books by Noam Chomsky and John Pilger,you will be
marveled by revelations that exposes the hypocrisies of the Western
world.Chomsky,for instance, tells us that Bill Clinton flew with Al
Qaeda and Hezbollah operatives to buttress his side of the war in Bosnia.
/Hegemony or survival,pg 35/.Apart from detailing the sponsoring of
State terrorism in many Latin American countries, Chomsky also
exposed how the Bush I administration pardoned in 1989 a notorious
anti-Castro Cuban terrorist, Orlando Bosch,who was accused of
masterminding the bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner in 1976.
Seventy three innocent civilians died due to this bombing on the Cuban
Airliner.Yet,the Bush/the father/administration granted asylum against
the advise of its Justice Department to this terrorist./Intervention,pg 68/.
While I am writing this, I witnessed how David Cameron, the new
Prime Minister of Britain and Barack Hussein Obama of America
expressed their regret over the release of the dying Libyan man
convicted and jailed for the Pan Am bombing at Lockerbie, allegedly
through the lobbying of the oil company,BP.At any rate, all the
adventure America and its ally, Britain engaged in since 9/11,didn’t make
the world a better place to live in. If anything, Al Qaeda supposed to be
confined and obliterated by the bombings of the Torah bora mountain,
has spread from Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia, stretching all the way
to Nigeria.Meanwhile, kids born in America, Australia, Canada and the
like who are supposed to embrace all the glamour of Western values are
shunning it to join either the rag-tag nomadic Jihadists in Somalia or the
Kaftan wearing Talibans in the mountains of Afghanistan. Could the
double standard of the Western society have reached such a peak to
drive otherwise sane and ambitious Western born kids to such
desperation? Contrary to Thomas Friedman’s assertion, these are not
super-empowered angry people from religious totalitarian States who did
their post-graduation in Madras. Leaving the Western “pundits” to
reflect on this, I would like to cite another example of the Western
world’s deception and subterfuge to invade Iraq on the pretext of
dismantling weapons of mass destruction/WMD/.To confuse public
opinion all over the world in what Chomsky aptly termed “consent
engineering,” even thriller writers such as Frederick Forsyth got
involved in the deception by churning out a plausible fiction that makes
it difficult not to believe that Saddam Hussein had no WMD.Forsyth’s
book that I have come to regard as part of the grand deception was
titled “Fist of God.” Now to the thorny issue in our backyard, Somalia!
Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopia fanning the fire in Somalia
To be fair to the regime in Ethiopia that came to power in May
1991, it’s imperative to state at the outset that the Somali problem has
always been there before its ascension to power. Like most similar
problems in Africa that causes fratricidal war, the genesis of the Somali
problem dates back to the colonial era. During the European Scramble
for Africa, there were three powers vying for Somali territory; Britain,
France and Italy.However, Ethiopia at the behest of Emperor Menilik II
prevented the colonial powers from having an easy ride by claiming
Ogaden as part of Ethiopia.Although, the Italians were active in Ogaden
which lies between Ethiopia and the coastal part of Somalia, no imperial
power formally controlled the region. The battle of Adwa in which the
Italians suffered a humiliating defeat settled the matter, at least
temporarily. The colonial powers acceded to the demands of Ethiopia on
Ogaden since Italy had been rendered irrelevant by the defeat.
Unfortunately, there came World War II, where Fascist Italy managed
to get even by occupying the whole of Ethiopia for five years. When
Ethiopia regained its independence, the issue of Eritrea along with other
former Italian colonies was tabled at the UN tribunal. Along the way, the
issue of Ogaden was resolved and once again made to be incorporated
with Ethiopia. Prior to that,however,Britain in its grand imperial strategy
had the desire to gobble up all territories adjacent to the British
Somaliland whereby the idea of “The Greater Somalia”germinated.
Although,all colonialists including Britain left Africa, the time bomb they
left behind started exploding after independence.Accordingly,Somalia
contrary to the African Union/AU/-then it was OAU- charter and other
international laws, immediately embarked in the realization of the dream
to unify all Somali speaking people under the same banner. In spite of
the fact that Kenya and Djibouti too have a substantial number of Somali
communities, and thus supposed to be incorporated within “The Greater
Somalia,” Somalia had never launched a military adventure into these
countries.Conversely, Somalia had twice blundered into Ethiopia; in
1964 and 1977.Red sea and the Nile river made it a top priority for
various external powers to goad Somalia into invading Ethiopia.
The second incursion of Somalia into Ethiopia posed a
real danger for it took place while Ethiopia was in the crossroads due to
the 1974 popular revolution that accidentally brought the military to
power. The Provisional Military Administrative Council/PMAC/a.k.a
Derg was confronted with a myriad of problems before it resolved its
legitimacy problem through the emergence of a strongman called
Mengistu H/Mariam. The Eritrean rebels controlled many areas in Eritrea
while other forms of insurgency mushroomed in provincial towns as
well as in the Capital city. United States that had been an ally of Emperor
Haile Selassie suspended the delivery of weapons, such as fighter
aircrafts and tanks, allegedly paid for in advance. Using this opportune
moment, Somalia launched its invasion and caused havoc for some time
until the tide of war soon tilted to Ethiopia’s side. Although, Siad Barre’s
force was routed and expelled, it still went on mounting hit and run
attacks directly and through a rebel force called Western Somali
Liberation Front/WSLF/.To minimize the battle fronts that stretched
Ethiopia’s resources from Eritrea to Ogaden, Derg apparently came up
with a plot that drove a wedge between Somalis. Consequently, Siad
Barre got toppled whereupon all the floodgates of anarchy were opened.
As a result, Somalia ceased to be a security threat to Ethiopia worthy
enough to send troops into its territory. Of course, this conspiracy
theory allegedly spun by the then rulers of Ethiopia to the detriment of
Somalia, has never been confirmed officially by those privy to the inner
council of the Derg.What can’t be disputed is that many Somalis have
been victims of the “Greater Somalia” propaganda and that most feel
that Ethiopia is their “historical enemy.” Thus, to them the invasion of
Ethiopia by Somalia was a righteous and sometimes holy war. At any
rate, right after Somalia became no more as a State, the military regime
in Ethiopia too crumbled paving the way for today’s rulers that postured
themselves as ally in the war against terror. In the bush war that
catapulted them to power, they used all ruthless methods imaginable,
ranging from recruiting children, using civilians as shields from air
bombardment that they knew would surely come. In fact, they
videotaped these bombardments with the foreknowledge they had
instead of evacuating the villagers or advising them to take shelter. They
used the films to rouse the anger of the peasantry for en masse
voluntary recruitment while swindling money from those living in exile.
On top of destroying infrastructures and storming banks, they also
committed a crime of kidnapping of foreigners for publicity and
extortion purposes, without mentioning their diversion of funds meant
for victims of famine. One of the kidnapping victims, Jon Swain
published a book about his own and an entire British family’s experience
as hostages in the hands of today’s Ethiopia’s rulers./For further detail,
see The Sunday Times, November 22,2009/. Martin Plaut of the BBC,
on the other hand, uncovered how they diverted aid money for the
purchase of weapons during their Stalinist days. In short, one can come
up with a voluminous history of the terror tactics applied so ruthlessly
during their insurgency. To be pertinent for the matter at hand, though,
I would cite a couple of examples on how the Meles Zenawi regime
thrives on State terrorism.
When TPLF/Tigray People Liberation Front/took over
Addis Ababa in tandem with EPLF/Eritrean People Liberation Front/,
then comrade-in-arms, made it their first priority to instill fear among
the cosmopolitan populace whom they regard as a bastion of “Amhara
chauvinism.” Among the tactics they used were to ignite the various
ammunition depots situated long ago in what’s supposed to be the
peripheries of the Capital whereby they were neglected to be relocated
as the city expanded due to the growing size of the population. The
similarity in which all of these ammunition depots turned into a ball of
fire was uncanny. In one of this explosion, the BBC photographer,
Mohammed Amin a.k.a Mo lost his arm.Ironically, a few years later, Mo
lost his life in a hijacking drama on an Ethiopian Airlines flight that ended
up by going down in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros Island. The
hijacking of that flight is still shrouded in mystery wherein the surviving
cockpit crews are still ill at ease to talk about it in detail. At any rate,
TPLF which transformed itself as the Transitional government blamed
the explosion on an opposition group formed in exile some of whose
members hadn’t seen their country for over three decades. When a
conference took place in June 1991 to form the so-called Transitional
government, TPLF handpicked the participants while excluding others.
Among those excluded was the exiled opposition group blamed for the
explosion on the ammunition depots with a label as “terrorist and
warmonger” therefore unworthy to take part in the “democratization”
process.Without mentioning the purge that took place in the jungle by
consuming the life of its own members, TPLF also eliminated some
renegades after coming to power. First among this was Mulu Alem who
challenged the leadership over its tribalism that sought to impose the
minority Tigray ethnic group over the majority. He paid dearly for it by a
bomb detonated in his office which was blamed on Chauvinist Amharas
and “anti-peace” elements. And so whenever the regime feels that the
public is about to go out of control, it inspires fear by fabricating terror
stories which at times is carried out by stage managing it through its
own agents.Then,the blame will be shifted on those dissidents and
opposition groups that won the respect of the people. In this way, Prof.
Asrat Woldeyes, Mr.Berhane Mewa, Dr.Taye Woldesemayat, Dr.
Berhanu Nega, Mr.Andargachew Tsige and prominent Ethiopians from
the Oromo ethnic group along with the political or civil society they led
were effectively ostracized. When the international community refused
to be swayed by this tactic of Meles and company during the 2005
rigged election; in fact, when it was on the verge of passing sanction,
Meles Zenawi grabbed the opportunity that appeared out of nowhere like
a manna from the heaven. The Islamic Courts Union/ICU/, to the
distaste of the Western world, particularly, United States, captured
Mogadishu.
Despite the understanding between IGAD member countries that
whatever peacekeeping force is needed in Somalia that it shouldn’t be
from neighboring countries, Meles Zenawi was given the green light to
meddle in the affairs of Somalia. In so doing, he went down in history
as the first Ethiopian ruler who invaded other people’s territory without
any mandate from the Ethiopian people. As there was no justification for
poking his nose in Somalia, he gave contradictory statements for
unleashing his henchmen in Mogadishu. Initially, he said he was there to
nip an imminent terrorist attack in the bud. Then, he changed tack and
said he was there at the invitation of the Transitional government. The
real motive was to deflect the international community’s attention from
his gross human rights violation following the election debacle. It was
also to ingratiate himself with the Western world by posturing as a key
ally in the war against terror.Because,the international community has
totally underestimated to what extent bad blood run between Somalis
and Ethiopians on account of Ogaden vis-à-vis The “Greater Somalia”,
Al-shabab has been strengthened by those young Somalis previously
indifferent, even opposed to Islamic extremism.And,then there is the
Eritrean factor which not only emerged as a newly State in the past
twenty years but also another problem child of Africa thanks to the
myopic sight of the “international community.” As Issayas Afeworki of
Eritrea has an axe to grind with Meles over a senseless border issue for
which he feels the international community has let him down/on this
point truth is with Issayas,for the border commission awarded him with
a decision/he thinks it serves his purpose to take a stance against Meles
on the Somali issue.Although,I don’t believe Eritrea is in any position to
finance and arm Al-shabab to the teeth as alleged by the UN resolution
to pass sanction on Asmara, it’s obvious that Eritrea has been using
Meles’s blunder in Somalia to its advantage. Still, I am of the opinion
that the role of Eritrea in Somalia hadn’t been that significant to the
extent of strengthening Al-shabab thereby warranting the sanction on
Asmara. The so-called international community picked an easy target to
vent its frustration on Somalia.Becuase of this failure to face the truth
squarely; Al-shabab brought the war on our doorstep right here in
Kampala.
Multifaceted profiteering on terrorism
At this juncture, I would like to make myself clear on one
crucial point. Despite Al-shabab’s belated claim of responsibility on the
gruesome mass murder of July 11, I share the sentiments of those who
doubt as to whether it was really the workings of Al-shabab.My reason
is simple.1.Those who call the shots in the “New World Order” have
been engaged in deception and subterfuge for long that I can’t trust
them anymore until I see that their and their adversaries allegation
withstand the test of time. To name but a few, they told us that there
was WMD in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein was a threat to international
security.And, it turned out to be a blatant lie.2.I have seen time and
again that the Western world can do business with any form of
dictatorship or extremism without any qualms so long as it doesn’t run
counter with its interest. After all, Sheik Sharif, the current “President”
of Somalia has once been branded terrorist. The Western world,
particularly America, has never condemned a dictator on the lofty
grounds of human rights or good governance. If that was the case
Robert Mugabe wouldn’t have been painted so black while Meles
Zenawi is allowed to hobnob with the big wigs in the power corridors of
the Western world. The cordial relationship between the Western world
and the religious totalitarian State of Saudi Arabia vis-à-vis the souring
of relations with Iran cannot be explained in any other way either.3.The
Western world always finds it alright to fight “terrorism” with those
dictators who terrorize their own people. As it transpires now, some of
these dictators such as the late Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines
masterminded their own terrorist attacks by bombing department stores,
private companies, water works even government buildings to impose
martial law on the pretext of averting a communist takeover thereby
gaining the sympathy of Washington. /see “World on Fire” by Amy
Chua pg 154/.I have no doubt in my mind that Meles Zenawi has been
engaged in this type of ruthlessness ever since he came to power. If
there was any security threat from the war torn Somalia, Ethiopia was
perfectly capable of preempting it without the need for incursion into
other people’s territory.4.If the rugby club and Ethiopian village had
been blasted by suicidal bombers, why the need to make mass arrest on
foreigners? After all, one of the reason suicidal bombers are sent to this
sort of mission is because of the need to maintain absolute secrecy,
before and after the mission. Suicidal mission is not only about finding
those who are willing to be martyred. Since a suicidal bomber is happy
to blow him/herself, there is no need to share the details of the mission
with anyone except those who give the command from the headquarter.
Obviously, Al-shabab’s or Al-Qaeda’s headquarter is not in Kampala, at
least, not yet.Therefore, I consider the sweeping arrest of people of
various nationalities as a desperate action taken to propitiate the
simmering wrath of the Ugandan public. In the name of sharing
information on intelligence, it’s also a perfect opportunity for the
Ethiopian regime to witch hunt dissidents who sought refuge in Uganda.
Particularly in danger are those from the Ogaden, a Somali region of
Ethiopia and Ethiopians of Oromo ethnic group with an Islamic
background or Arabic sounding name like this writer has. There is
ample precedence for this sort of gross human rights violation on the
pretext of fighting terrorism. Notable among them was the case of
Binyam Mohammed, a former Ethiopian turned a British national, who
was arrested and tortured on the basis of a confession of another man
obtained under duress. The “civilized” British intelligence officers played
a great deal of part in the sad story of Binyam.I also remember the case
of a Sudanese photographer for Aljazeera who had been interned in
Guantanamo only to be found innocent years later. Among the terror
suspects detained in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq whereby
American soldiers abused them with impunity, it now emerged that
ninety percent of them were innocent.Therefore,dictators who are in the
habit of persecuting and witch hunting benefit in many ways out of
terrorism; real or stage managed terrorism by their own agents.
As I always maintain, it has been bad enough for Uganda to rush
into Somalia where angels even fear to tread without considering many
variables. All I hope now is that it’s President hasn’t taken any bad
advice from his counterpart, Meles Zenawi, during his last brief stay in
Addis Ababa to attend a meeting called by IGAD.From his past record,
there’s no doubt that he would dare to whisper into Mzee’s ear “you
can shake off this Americans who nag you to fire the chairman of your
election commission for “free and fair election” by deflecting their
attention like I did.”Thankfully, I can vouch for Mzee that whatever
problem he has he wouldn’t stoop this low due to a certain quality I
noticed as a statesman that unfortunately the man in the Menilik palace
in my country never had and never will.
Why postpone, what’s inevitable?
The war in Somalia can be summed up as “rich man’s war,
poor man’s fight.” If the Western world finds a means to tame Al-
shabab fighters into working for its benefit so that the passage for oil
and other sources of interest will be free from security threat, I am sure
it’s ready to bury the hatchet and do business with it regardless of its
extreme form of Islamism. As I was concluding this writing, a
conference was taking place in Kabul, Capital of Afghanistan. In a bid to
find an honorable exit for those Western nations involved in
Afghanistan, Taliban fighters were offered money and job if they lay
down their guns. This shows that the Western world is unable to
conquer the Talibans through its sheer technological might. After the
July 11 bomb blast in Kampala, President Museveni indicated that the
forces behind Al-shabab are somewhere in the Middle East. Unlike
Eritrea whom Uganda and its “partners” in the fight against terror
blamed for the sake of venting their frustration over the failure in
Somalia, the President shied away from naming who exactly backs Al-
shabab in the Middle East. Whichever way you look at it, Uganda and
Burundi, two poorest nations of Africa, are up against an invisible
enemy which they are even afraid to name. Yet, they still obstinately
maintain that they got involved in Mogadishu in the spirit of Pan-
Africanism. Rather than assessing the Somali issue objectively, Uganda
in particular is readying to clamor for mandate change from
“peacekeeping to peace enforcing in the upcoming AU summit.”
Although, it’s not clear for me what one can enforce what’s not there, I
take it to mean a demand for permission so that UPDF/AMISOM/
engages Al-shabab in a counter attack. Believing Norbert Mao’s
assessment of the President at one time, I thought the Ugandan
government would refrain from manifesting sheer bravado. Mao said
“He/President Museveni/does not fight many wars at a go or open many
fronts at the same time.”/Sunday Vision September 2, 2007/. Without
concluding the war with LRA decisively, how does the Ugandan
government expect to flush out Al-shabab whose rules of engagement is
senseless and devoid of humanity. Ayn Rand author of ‘The
Fountainhead’ observed “The trouble with you, my dear and with most
people, is that you don’t have sufficient respect for the senseless—You
have no chance if it’s your enemy.” But who is senseless here? At any
rate, while the big powers are readying to pack and leave from the
Middle East, I don’t think it’s right for Uganda to sink further into a
quagmire for which the international community is reluctant to find a
solution by addressing its root cause. I am afraid, Uganda’s further
staying with more involvement in Somalia would only postpone what’s
inevitable; and that’s fleeing ultimately like Meles’s henchmen after
sustaining heavy casualty in vain.
May the dead as well as the living rest in eternal peace
An Ethiopian Refugee in Uganda
E-mail: kiflukam@yahoo.com
Author's Previous Article
Role of media in democracy vs pseudo democracy
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