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The US Colonisation of Somalia and the 'Power Vacuum' FallacyBy Amina MireJune 27, 2007 Few days ago, I had published at an internet blog a paper. In it, I argued that Ethiopia's occupation of Somalia will continue, as long as this is possible, because it serves the U.S imperialist objectives in Somalia: to gain a total control over Somalia's unexplored energy and other natural resources and as a geopolitical outpost in support of other US imperial projects in Africa and the Horn and Africa in particular. In that work, I have also argued that in order to gain a total control over Somalia, the US is using the UN and other international bodies, such as the Security Council, African Union and EU, in order to overcome local resistance to US colonial takeover of Somalia. In that work, I have also stressed that the US is currently using two different but closely linked strategies to normalize and legitimate its imperialistic aims in Somalia. The undertaking of a massive international PR lobby based on spins, lies and fear mongering about a supposed power vacuum which will ensue if Ethiopia's occupation troops in Somalia were to suddenly withdraw. So that, the current state of death and destruction, anarchy, looting, mass rape of Somali women by Ethiopian troops and their constant menacing of the Somali population can be justified as acceptable, albeit in the name of a supposedly preventing even greater "evil," the return of Union of Islamic Courts to political power. Never mind that it was the Union of Islamic Courts which brought peace and security to the people of Somalia while the thuggish warlords of the transitional federal government and the Tigre occupation army of Meles Zinawi and their US backers brought an unmitigated death and destruction to the people of Somalia. As a result, if the idea of "power vacuum" means keeping law and order, then at present, Somalis are living under the most extreme state of power vacuum. There is a dawn to dust curfew almost in all parts of the country under Ethiopian occupation. Ethiopian troops are openly killing and maiming innocent citizens, are looting local businesses and are raping Somali women.
Thus, Ethiopian occupation forces in Somalia are acting towards the Somalis as an occupation force, which they are. Therefore, the power vacuum mantra promoted by the by the Bush administration is absurd since the Ethiopia's occupation of Somalia is illegal and must come to an end immediately. Let me quote from Salim Lone's recent article at the British newspaper, the Guardian, to illustrate this point. This is the most lawless war of our generation. All wars of aggression lack legitimacy, but no conflict in recent memory has witnessed such mounting layers of illegality as the current one in Somalia. Violations of the UN charter and of international humanitarian law are regrettably commonplace in our age, and they abound in the carnage that the world is allowing to unfold in Mogadishu, but this war has in addition explicitly violated two UN security council resolutions. To complete the picture, one of these resolutions contravenes the charter itself.Thus, it is the US/Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia that sought to install to political power a group of criminal warlords that brought power vacuum to Somalia. So the first step to any meaningful remedy to the current tragic situation in Somalia requires reversing the current state of anarchy and lawlessness by removing the sources of the power vacuum by ending the Ethiopian occupation of Somalia. Therefore, we reject lies and PR spins which seek to represent killing, rape of Somali women, looting of local shops by the Tigre army on daily basis to continue in the name of preventing a power vacuum. I am curious to know how these crimes against humanity, the rape of Somali women, the looting of local shops and killing and maiming of civilians in Somalia by Tigre army can be defended in the name of law and order? It is clear that Zinawi's Tigre army are in Somalia as a paid mercenary army whose primary task is not to bring law and order but to terrorise and pacify the Somali population for US colonial domination. In this sense, power vacuum mantra is nothing more than a crude PR spin which seeks to mask the current state of death and destruction and anarchy in Somalia. As I have elaborated elsewhere[free-somalia.org, www.sirdoon.com, www.trinicenter.com/articles/2007/130607.html], the US is trying to give a veil of international legitimacy to Ethiopia's occupation of Somalia by discursively blurring the line between mercenary soldiers and peacekeepers so that the US can use international money and legal cover to finance and legitimate the brutal Ethiopian occupation of Somalia. Thus, the US PR spin and fear mongering about power vacuum, if the Ethiopia's army is to suddenly withdraw from Somalia, works hand in hand with the US attempt at legitimising the initial US/Ethiopian illegal invasion of Somalia as preferable to the rule of the Union of Islamic Courts in free and peaceful Somalia governed under Islamic law. Never mind that Somalis are Muslims and sharia laws are embedded in all Somali customs and laws both written and unwritten ones. And never mind that the Zinawi's Tigre army which is currently menacing Somalia with the full backing of western powers is a Christian army. So we are told that this is not a Christian Crusade; but it's a Christian army which invaded a Muslim country in order to prevent the Muslim people of Somalia living under Islamic laws! In Somalia of today, what we are witnessing is the unmasking of George W. Bush's Christian Crusading, anti-Muslim ideology, which underpin the Bush administration's war against Islamic terror. The conspicuous silence of other western nations to the utter death and destruction Zinawi's Tigre army and US special forces are wrecking in Somalia also registers to the degree in which the Bush administration's Christian Crusade against the people of Somalia has a broader western support. Again, the conspicuous silence of progressive forces in the west to the death and destruction Zinawi's Tigre army, thuggish warlords and US special forces are wrecking in Somalia, speaks the extent to which Bush's mantra of anti-Muslim mantra of clash of civilizations has a broader institutional support in the west. This is crudest expression of the Bush administration's war against Islamic terror at work. Thus, international system based on judicious use of power, respect for human rights are now being suspended and abrogated as a de facto extra juridical instruments of domination and colonization by the US against the people of Somalia. Salim Lone makes this point succinctly clear. The complete impunity with which Ethiopia and the transitional Somali government have been allowed to violate these resolutions explains the ruthlessness of the military assaults that have been under way for six weeks now. The details of the atrocities being committed were formally acknowledged by a western government for the first time when Germany, which holds the current EU presidency, had its ambassador to Somalia, Walter Lindner, write a tough letter - made public on Wednesday - to Somalia's president, Abdullahi Yusuf.Of course, officially, the US is going along with EU nations who are calling for the eventual Ethiopia's pull out of Somalia to be replaced by African Union troops as peace keepers in Somalia. In reality, this is a ruse. This is because, by backing the US sponsorship of Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia, the African Union (AU) and UN Charters are in clear violation of Security Council resolutions 1724, 1725 and 1744. The absurdity of the current spin on the fear of power vacuum in Somalia, if the Ethiopian forces were to suddenly leave the country lacks credibility. It's primary aim is to enhance and consolidate the Ethiopian occupation of Somalia. This legitimating spin is clear from the initial US/Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in the name of "protecting" and restoring Ethiopia's "national sovereignty". The African Union had accepted this nonsense; rubbish; by endorsing Ethiopia's invasion of another African country. Thus the AU has no moral credibility with future peacekeeping efforts in Somalia because it's illegal and immoral complicity with Ethiopia's invasion and brutal occupation of Somalia. Consequently, AU forces currently in Somalia, as well as those who may arrive at a later date, by logical extension, are part of Ethiopia's occupation forces in Somalia and will remain to be so even if Ethiopia's soldiers eventually leave Somalia. Indeed, if Ethiopian troops current menacing and maiming the people of Somalia are to leave Somalia, it will be because of local Somali resistance to the colonial occupation of their land not because of AU, UN, or the US resolutions ordering Ethiopia to pull out of Somalia for these international bodies who have authorized, endorsed, tacitly or overtly, the US/Ethiopia's illegal invasion and occupation of Somalia. Thus, the power vacuum talk is a cynical PR spin designed to give a seal of international approval to continue Ethiopia's illegal occupation of Somalia. This is one of the chief reasons why the Bush administration prefers a long-term Ethiopian occupation of Somalia. It is pertinent also to come to terms that a deliberate creation of a power vacuum in Somalia was the Bush administration's primary aim in backing Ethiopia's invasion of that country. This is clear from the Bush administration's backing of Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia, thereby creating a sudden power vacuum in Somalia, without securing a peacekeeping force to take over after the initial invasion. The aim of Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia was a crude attempt by the current Bush administration,(using Ethiopia as a proxy US agent), to install a puppet regime in Somalia. But things did not turn out according to Bush's plan, thanks to a large extent by the fierce local resistance to the colonial takeover of their country. The US colonization of Somalia is the main reason why a number of leading AU nations have refused to send peacekeepers to Somalia to act as mercenary force to prop up the warlord regime of Gedi and Yusuf. This is also the main reason why the Bush administration is a going PR overdrive on selling the "power vacuum" discourse so that the US could receive international endorsement to re-branding the Ethiopian army currently in Somalia as an occupation force to a "peacekeeping force." Bush's primary objective in being in Somalia is not restore law and order to Somalia but how to best install a working US friendly puppet regime in Somalia. But now the Bush administration is facing new problems for Zinawi's atrocious human rights recording inside Ethiopia are on the media spotlight. Ironically, even after Zinawi is being exposed for what he really is: a thuggish dictator and usurper of political power by arresting, killing, maiming his political opponents to stay in power, the US still depends on the Zinawi Tigre army to continue terrorizing the people of Somalia. Thus, the US congress and the Bush administration are still ready to reward Zinawi with half a billion dollars of US tax payers's money for a job well done in the US war against Islamic terror. This is nothing more than blood money paid to the Tigre army's mass, killing and maiming of the people of Somalia in the name of US war against terror while giving, lip-service to his atrocious human rights violations inside Ethiopia. This is the clearest example of how the international norms pertaining to human rights have become a de facto prerogative of the US to be deployed capriciously and without a hint of moral restraints, to advance the US imperial aims rather than save guarding the human rights and our commonly shared universal norms of justice fairness and respect for the national sovereignty of weaker nations. The current US spin on the fear of Power vacuum in Somalia, if Ethiopia's occupation force is to pull out of Somalia, is a deprived lie designed to prolong the agony of the people of Somalia who are currently suffering under menacing power of the unholy trinity of US global militarism, thuggish warlords and the Tigre army. NOTES:
Amina Mire (Faculty: Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Carleton University), Ottawa, Canada. |
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