By Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi
The scenes coming out of Mogadishu are so horrible that they are unbearable to watch. Civilians are lying dead in their homes and on the streets; there is no water; no electricity; hospitals have been shelled and one hospital has been partly destroyed and then taken over by Meles’ forces–a direct attack on the Geneva Conventions. Phalanxes of Meles’ tanks are firing shells on civilian targets; field artillery is being directed at whole neighborhoods. More than 100,000 have fled their homes in Mogadishu and are exposed to the elements in the countryside. These are all war crimes and crimes against humanity.
One would expect an outcry from the world; instead there is an awful silence. What has happened? Has the world become desensitized to the death of Somalis? How else can one explain this immoral silence coming from the rest of the world? For sure, the media is partly to blame because instead of exploring what the real issues are, they have fallen for the mantra of post-911—fighting ‘fundamentalist remnants’. Therefore, the thousands of victims in Mogadishu are supposedly ‘fundamentalist remnants’, or ‘remnants of the Islamic courts’, or ‘Islamist rebels’; so, the West and the AU have chosen to close their eyes while the ‘Islamist rebels’ are being taken care of by Meles’ Tigrean officered hordes (of course, the majority of Ethiopians do not agree with Meles on this and are sick and tired of the man’s endless wars while poor Ethiopians are dying of famine and diseases). That is the line of justification presented to the world by the media. But the truth is what we have now in Mogadishu is a popular resistance; calling it the remnants of the Islamic courts is nonsense; there may be Islamists in the ranks of the resistors but who said that Islamists have no right to life in their own country. The undeniable truth is that the city of Mogadishu is just full of the people of Mogadishu, whatever political convictions they may hold, and what should be clear to all by now is that they just do not want Meles’ forces and their collaborators–the TFG and its reptilian leader, Col. Abdullahi Yusuf.
The TFG is not a government to the people of Mogadishu nor to the vast majority of Somalis- To all intents and purposes, there is no government worthy of the name in Mogadishu or anyone’s support. The TFG, from the start, was farce foisted on the Somalis by Igad, led by Ethiopia and Kenya, while the funders, the EU and other interested foreign entities, chose to put on blinkers, while the farce was being prepared. However, it remained only a laughter inspiring farce until Meles of Ethiopia found an excuse to invade Somalia and install it in Mogadishu—delivering a modern day Vichy government for Somalia. Created in that despicable fashion, there is no chance that the TFG and its Meles picked leadership would initiate reconciliation and peace inside Somalia. If anything, the top leadership of the TFG, including the murderous colonel, are now party to the crimes being committed in Mogadishu, and should stand trail.
The question of the moment is who will bring justice to the people of Mogadishu? Will the US, party to the Meles’ intervention through funding, intelligence gathering and other actions, accept a resolution authorizing a war crimes probe in Mogadishu? It seems unlikely under the Bush regime, especially since US warplanes killed a lot of innocent nomad Somalis in the Kismayo area, the under the guise of the so-called ‘war on terror.’ Who else is out there? The Kenyans have imprisoned poor Somali refugees fleeing turmoil and handed them over to Meles’ forces, who made them disappear-what else can you expect from the man who has been tenaciously sitting at the helm in Ethiopia for the last 15 years and who resolutely clings to power at any prize, including massacring the students at Addis Ababa University in their dormitories. As for the African Union, it is supporting Meles’ actions in Mogadishu. The UN has also acquiesced to the presence of Meles’ forces and their Somali quislings. The Arab League is just too occupied with affairs closer to its center. Who remains then? Will the EU take the lead and call for an investigation?
In the end, it seems that one will help the poor Somalis to bring justice to those who have committed war crimes against them. So what else can be done? I urge all Somalis to start putting this issue forward, to gather all evidence, such as the time and place of crimes, who were the Ethiopian (Meles’) commanders and their Somali collaborators. We also should start collecting narratives from civilians. Additionally, diaspora Somalis should start putting pressure on their home governments.
We should, for a while at least, put away all our political differences and focus on this matter. I call upon Col. Yusuf’s supporters to join us in this effort-there can be no excuses for not condemning the massacres being committed in Mogadishu. At any rate, any sane person would figure out by now that Col. Abdullahi is well beyond the point of no return; so no one should entertain dreams of seeing him happily ensconced in Villa Somalia and profiting from being related to him or having supported him. Somali History shows that when one segment of the population is being massacred and the other segment stays silent, in the end, the fires will consume both segments. That is exactly what happened in Hargeisa (and all over Somaliland) in 1988. There were many side liners and many unspoken ‘kill them’ statements, from Barre’s supporters, back then. In the end, the fires ignited by Barre’s savagery consumed all Somalis. This time it is the people of Mogadishu who are being victimized by Meles and his henchman, col. Yusuf. To be silent is tantamount to being an accessory to the crimes.
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Dr. Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi resides in Dubai, UAE, and can be reached at [email protected]