Elizabeth Kennedy
The Associated Press
NAIROBI, KENYA – Somalia is a land of a thousand plagues, with nearly 20 years of violent chaos and intractable poverty, Islamic extremism and failed peace talks.
But the crisis over the past 18 months is exceeding even the worst-case scenarios dreamed up nearly two years ago, when troops from neighboring Ethiopia arrived to oust a radical Islamic militia and support the Western-backed government.
The Ethiopian Woyanne troops, which many Somalis consider an occupying force, are seen as a root of the violence and not a cure.
“The nature of the crisis is much more dangerous now,” Ken Menkhaus, a Somalia expert at Davidson College in North Carolina, told The Associated Press. “The level of indiscriminate violence is worse than at any time.”
With no plan in sight for an Ethiopian a Woyanne withdrawal, both sides of the conflict are at a deadly stalemate seemingly immune to U.N.-brokered peace talks, international pressure and even the daily carnage on Mogadishu’s streets.
This week saw a renewed explosion of violence with 30 people killed in fighting in the capital on Monday and at least 11 civilians killed during an overnight attack on an African Union peacekeepers’ base in Mogadishu.
The government, powerless without Ethiopia’s muscle, will likely crumble if their protectors pull out. And al-Shabab, a radical group at the heart of the insurgency, refuses to negotiate as long as Ethiopians Woyannes remain.
Many in overwhelmingly Muslim Somalia resent the government’s reliance on Ethiopia Woyanne, a traditional rival with a large Christian population and one of Africa’s largest armies. Ethiopia and Somalia fought a bloody war in 1977, and many Somalis see the Ethiopians as abusive and heavy-handed.
Neither side has shown regard for civilians who stream out of the capital in droves, many of them gravely wounded and taking shelter by roadsides or sneaking into neighboring countries. A local human rights group says the insurgency has killed more than 9,000 civilians to date.
The streets of Mogadishu, a once-beautiful seaside city, are now bullet-scarred and stained with blood.
“If your principal interest is quelling the political violence then an Ethiopian a Woyanne withdrawal will help,” Menkhaus said. “That will take away the principal grievance.”
But a pullout is unlikely, as the militants appear to be gaining strength and sidelining the government, just as they did during their six-month rule in 2006. The group, al-Shabab, or “The Youth,” has taken over the port town of Kismayo, Somalia’s third-largest city, and dismantled pro-government roadblocks. They also effectively closed the Mogadishu airport by threatening to attack any plane using it, and ordered journalists to register with them.
Unlike in 2006, however, when the Islamists steadily took over much of southern Somalia and the capital, imposing security while demanding religious piety, Ethiopia is now standing in the way of any truly significant rebel advances in power.
“The Ethiopians Woyannes will make it impossible for the Islamists,” said Daud Aweys, a Nairobi-based Somalia analyst. “The Ethiopians are more powerful, and they have more weapons.”
That means al-Shabab’s near-daily mortar attacks, suicide bombings and ambushes could very likely continue with no end in sight, with the goal of simply crippling and humiliating the government. Reprisals from government and Ethiopian Woyanne allies are swift and heavy-handed, but have not eradicated the insurgency.
The African Union has sent about 2,600 peacekeepers to Somalia. But they have a mandate limited to protecting key government installations such as the airport and seaport. And they are generally are confined to the airport because security is so atrocious.
The U.N. has tried to push peace talks between the government and the opposition, but a recent deal with a more moderate faction of the Islamic group seems only to have worsened the violence.
Al-Shabab denounced the talks, which took place in Djibouti, and did not participate.
“We have started building up our military strength because some of our fellow insurgents seem to have been corrupted by the enemy, like those who signed the so-called deal with the puppet government in Djibouti,” said Sheik Muhumed, a commander with al-Shabab, which the United States considers a terrorist group.
The Ethiopians Woyannes, meanwhile, are eager to leave Somalia, saying they are not meant to be peacekeepers. But they continue to pledge support for the government, fearing a radical Islamic state on their doorstep.
The United States has repeatedly accused the Islamic group of harboring international terrorists linked to al-Qaida and allegedly responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. America is concerned that Somalia could be a breeding ground for terror, particularly as Osama bin Laden declared his support for the Islamists.
The U.S. sent a small number of special operations troops with the Ethiopian Woyanne forces in 2006 and in early 2007 conducted several airstrikes in an attempt to kill suspected al-Qaida members.
But the U.S. has avoided overt military action in Somalia since it led a U.N. force that intervened in the 1990s in an effort to fight famine. The mission led to clashes between U.N. forces and Somali warlords, including a battle chronicled in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down” that killed 18 U.S. soldiers.
Menkhaus and other observers say Somalis are being increasingly radicalized, blaming the Ethiopians Woyannes and the government for the extraordinary violence and humanitarian crisis. The fact that Ethiopia Woyanne is a key ally of the United States a country loathed by most Somalis does not help matters.
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Elizabeth Kennedy has covered East Africa since 2006.
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Britain has pledged 26.9 million pounds for drought-hit Ethiopia, where some 9.6 million people are in need of emergency food aid, its embassy said on Wednesday.
The money will finance food distribution, medical support, nutrition and water supply.
“We are very concerned about the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia. That’s why DFID (Department for International Development) is making this additional funding available with immediate effect,” said Howard Taylor, DFID’s representative in Ethiopia.
In June, London pledged some 10 million pounds for Ethiopia.
The World Food Programme on Monday launched an appeal for 460 million dollars to the millions of Ethiopians affected by drought and rising food prices.
Aid organisations say Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, is on the brink of famine akin to those of the 1980s, when millions of people died.
(gfpc) The German government is increasing its financial support for Ethiopia by 40 Percent despite strong accusations raised against that country by human rights organizations. This was announced by the foreign ministry in Addis Ababa following last week’s negotiations between the governments of Germany and Ethiopia. The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development will allocate 96 million Euros over the next three years – one of the ministry’s largest development budget subventions. For years the Ethiopian government has been heavily criticized for committing crimes against humanity. After coming to power in 2005 through electoral fraud, the government ordered the shooting of hundreds of demonstrators. It is still being accused of torture and summary executions. Numerous opponents and independent journalists were forced to flee the country. Recent reports have accused the Ethiopian army of kidnappings and the murder of civilians in the East of the country. The development budget increase corresponds to Ethiopia’s geo-strategic significance, which the German ambassador to Addis Ababa particularly stressed in a strategy paper. As a western ally, the Ethiopian army is also involved in the war in Somalia. Ethiopian soldiers are being trained in Germany.
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40 Percent Increase
As the foreign ministry in Addis Ababa announced, the German-Ethiopian government negotiations ended last week with a new agreement on German development subventions. The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) pledges 96 million Euros covering the next three years – one of the largest subventions granted by the ministry. Ethiopia is one of BMZ’s “Priority Partner Countries”. In government negotiations in March 2005, Ethiopia opened its doors to hundreds of German specialists, who have been working since, under the guidance of the BMZ and its front organizations, in key positions in the Ethiopian economy and administration, assuring Berlin substantial influence.[1] Already in 2005, Berlin pledged 80 million Euros for the following 3 year period. Only 69 million were actually paid because the European Union had imposed financial limitations because of Ethiopia being accused of crimes against humanity.[2] The subventions pledged last week amount to an increase of 40 Percent.[3]
Overshadowed
Human rights organizations’ strong accusations have overshadowed the intensification of German-Ethiopian cooperation since it began in 2005. The accusations commenced already two months after the government negotiations were ended in May 2005, when the government was only able to survive parliamentary elections by committing massive electoral fraud. The ensuing protests were suppressed with brutal force. By the end of that year, the number of demonstrators killed by Ethiopian repressive forces had been estimated at around 100 – obviously an error. An Ethiopian parliamentarian committee of inquiry discovered that 193 people were killed and 765 wounded. But in the final report, submitted in November 2006, the committee claimed it could not find evidence of the use of excessive force by the repressive authorities. This is not surprising. After having refused to sign this report in the presence of Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi, both chairmen of the committee, fearing for their lives, fled the country.[4]
Departures and Arrivals
Whereas a growing number of opponents and independent journalists are fleeing the country,[5] more and more German specialists are arriving in Addis Ababa on behalf of German development organizations. Since 2005, Ethiopia is given – by far – the highest priority job offers on the list of the Association for Technical Cooperation (“Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit,” GTZ) and of the Center for International Migration and Development (“Centrum für Internationale Migration und Entwicklung”, CIM). Both organizations are implementing the government accords of 2005 and are holding several hundred key positions in this East African country’s economy and administration. Berlin is ignoring the human rights organizations’ protests against politically motivated arrests, torture, maltreatment and summary executions at the hands of Ethiopian repressive forces. In the fall of 2005 the state financed Institute of African Affairs (IAA) in Hamburg renounced its report critical of Addis Ababa.[6] The German government is granting nearly uncontested support to the Ethiopian regime.
Cannot Be Negotiated
A complaint of the CDU/CSU caucus of the German Bundestag in March 2008 has been until now somewhat of an exception. But the complaint is not of torture, previously alleged by Amnesty International, but of the jamming of state financed Deutsche Welle and Voice of America radio stations. “The right to free speech and information is a non-negotiable fundamental right,” affirmed the speaker for cultural and media policy of the CDU/CSU caucus in the German Bundestag regarding the intolerable jamming of radio programs in the service of western foreign policy.[7]
Mutual Alliance
While ignoring the issue of human rights, the German Ethiopia policy is carefully safeguarding its foreign policy interests based upon Ethiopia’s strategic importance, which has been documented in detail in an October 2006 report by Claus Dieter Knoop, the German Ambassador in Addis Ababa (german-foreign-policy.com reported [8]). According to the report, this East African nation is playing a “strategic role” for the precarious water supply in North East Africa: Four-fifths of the Nile’s water originates from sources in Ethiopian. Given the fact that Ethiopia has a substantial number of Christians, it is also placed in the role of a front line state vis-à-vis the Arab peninsula. But it is the protection of the maritime commercial routes off the East-African coast that is of “special German interest”, according to Knoop. This immense importance is underlined by the deployment of the German navy off the Horn of Africa.[9] For a year and a half, Ethiopian troops have been trying to help a pro-western “government” in Mogadishu to take control over the coastal nation of Somalia, showing that Addis Ababa seeks not only regional hegemony for itself but is also willing to serve western interests. The alliance between Ethiopia and the West – including the USA – is a sustainable mutual alliance.
Conspiracy of Silence
The fact that human rights organizations have been strongly criticizing the Ethiopian army’s warfare for months seems to be of little importance. Already last fall, Human Rights Watch declared that “by widely and indiscriminately bombarding highly populated areas of Mogadishu with rockets, mortars and artillery” Ethiopian troops were violating international law and have been “deliberately shooting and summarily executing civilians.”[10] Human Rights Watch recently published a new report that is strongly criticizing the Ethiopian army’s activities in the eastern part of the country. In its battle against rebels in that region, Ethiopian troops have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, subjected civilians to torture and executed at least 150 of them, the organization writes. The West is guilty of a “conspiracy of silence around these crimes.”[11]
Threatening to Ban
It is not yet clear how long human rights organizations can continue their research in Ethiopia therefore breaking this silence. President Meles is preparing a law aimed at heavily restricting NGO activities with a threat of being banned. If the law is passed after the parliamentary summer recess, “the activities of aid organizations would be restricted if not made impossible,” a speaker of Caritas International said in a discussion with german-foreign-policy.com. This would also apply to human rights organizations. In the course of the recently concluded negotiations, the German government objected to this projected law but still pledged new subventions – a clear sign to Meles that Berlin will not seriously resist.
Arms Exports
Despite Ethiopian war crimes, Germany will not only continue furnishing financial development subventions, but also maintain the training program for the Ethiopian military, which began in 2002. The most recent example is the participation of an Ethiopian staff officer in the current “Training course for general/admiral grade staff with international participation” (LGAI) at the Bundeswehr’s Leadership Academy in Hamburg. According to the most recent arms export report, not only small arms but even, for the first time, communication equipment is being exported – with official approval – to Ethiopia, despite the war the Ethiopian army is waging not only in Somalia but against rebels at home. It is not yet known whether there is direct contact between the Ethiopian invading army in Somalia and the German war ships cruising off the Somali coast.
[1] see also Key positions and Berater
[2] Vorrang für Menschenrecht und Meinungsfreiheit in Äthiopien; Pressemitteilung der CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion 17.03.2008
[3] Germany pledges 96 million euro to Ethiopia; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia 18.06.2008
[4] amnesty international Deutschland: Jahresbericht 2007. Äthiopien. amnesty schreibt über die Proteste: “Die meisten Opfer waren von Kugeln der Armee oder der Polizei getroffen worden. In einigen Fällen hatte man ihnen in den Rücken geschossen, als sie zu fliehen versuchten, andere waren offenbar von Heckenschützen ins Visier genommen worden. Mindestens 17 Insassen des Kaliti-Gefängnisses, überwiegend wegen gewöhnlicher Straftaten einsitzende Untersuchungshäftlinge, aber auch einige politische Gefangene, waren im Zuge der Ereignisse wegen mutmaßlicher Unterstützung der Demonstranten oder wegen Fluchtversuchs in ihren Zellen erschossen worden.”
[5] Dies dokumentieren ausführlich die Jahresberichte von Amnesty International und Human Rights Watch sowie viele Berichte weiterer Menschenrechtsorganisationen.
[6] see also Indispensable Rights
[7] Vorrang für Menschenrecht und Meinungsfreiheit in Äthiopien; Pressemitteilung der CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion 17.03.2008
[8] see also Sonderbericht
[9] see also Deutsche Marine steht vor Kommando im Indischen Ozean, Ölversorgung, Sonderbericht and Seemacht (I)
[10] Somalia: Kriegsverbrechen in Mogadischu; Human Rights Watch 13.08.2007. See also Stabilizing Factor
[11] Ethiopia: Army Commits Executions, Torture, and Rape in Ogaden; Pressemitteilung von Human Rights Watch 12.06.2008
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA – On Saturday, Sept. 13, about 75 people gathered at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax (UUCF) on Hunter Mill Road in Oakton to view “A Walk to Beautiful,” a feature-length documentary film about women in Ethiopia who suffer from obstetric fistula, a devastating childbirth injury. The film follows them from their communities, where they are treated as outcasts, to the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, where their bodies are healed and their lives are transformed.
Two speakers who had witnessed the work performed by the hospital also addressed the gathering. A buffet featuring Ethiopian cuisine was donated by a number of area restaurants.
Filmgoers contributed $8,700 at the screening. With additional donations forthcoming from the UUCF community, the organizers expect to contribute over $10,000 to the Fistula Foundation, enough to treat more than 20 women. The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital has treated more than 30,000 women over 33 years. Their cure rate is over 90 percent.
In Ethiopia alone, there are an estimated 100,000 women suffering with untreated fistula. The root causes of fistula are poverty and the low status of women and girls, whose stunted condition can contribute to obstructed labor, which leads to fistula.
Those wishing to learn more about fistula or to make a contribution to the Fistula Hospital, may visit www.fistulafoundation.org.
Source: Vienna Connection
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (APA) – Ethiopia on Wednesday named a hospital and a street after Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele respectively who brought two gold medals each in the 5,000m and 10,000m games in the Beijing Olympics.
Kenenisa Street is located around the same street named after Haile Gebresilassie, another hero in athletics for over 15 years.
The Hospital named after Dibaba is located around the outskirt of Addis Ababa in Kality.
The Tirunesh-Beijing Hospital is under construction under a Chinese and Ethiopian government joint investment.
The Addis Ababa city administration also awarded various prizes to the athletes who won medals for Ethiopia. Dibaba and Bekele received $10,000 each.
In a letter dated Sept. 22, 2008, U.S. Senator Feingold wrote Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice:
I appreciated State’s prompt response to the question I posed on the Department’s compliance with the Foreign Assistance Act at the hearing. However, I am disappointed that despite acknowledging security forces in Chad and Ethiopia are reported to have committed abuses, the response asserted without any reservation or justification that there is not a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights in these countries. This claim contradicts the State Department’s own annual country reports.
In Ethiopia, the State Department’s annual reports over the last decade all document persistent human rights abuses by the security forces, including unlawful killings, beatings, abuse and torture, especially targeting members of the political opposition. In addition, the State Department’s Country Reports on
Human Rights Practices for 2007 specifically cites “the use of excessive force by security services in an internal conflict and counter-insurgency operations.” This is a reference to the Ethiopian military’s operations in the Ogaden region, where available reporting alleges that they have subjected civilians to executions, torture and rape.
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