But then, it seems, the elections were rigged. Naturally, there were protests, but the police and military shut them down, jailing and even killing protesters. Will Conners, the journalist who wrote the article, was arrested and spent some time in an Ethiopian jail. Now, it seems, Ethiopia is becoming a terror state.The U.S. government considers Ethiopia an important ally in the war on terror, since it shares borders with Eritrea, Sudan, and Somalia, the latter invaded by Ethiopia this past Christmas with Washington's approval. Ethiopia has not been able to extricate itself from Somalia, and the military has been accused of possible war crimes there. Mogadishu even has a new nickname: "Baghdad on the Sea."
In addition to sending nearly half a billion dollars in aid money to Ethiopia every year, more than to any other sub-Saharan African country, the United States also supplies the Ethiopian military with funds, arms, and special forces training from Army Rangers.
Yet with all the recent negative attention focused on Ethiopia, it is easy to forget that the country had been on the right track. In 2005, poverty was down, growth was up, the local press was flourishing, and the capital, Addis Ababa, was brimming with hope and excitement about upcoming elections.
In order to fight rebels in the region of Ogaden, the government shut down access to the region and refused to let any journalists investigate. Conners tried to look into the situation, getting a glimpse of the tortured lives of ethnically Somalian residents of Ethiopia. He soon found himself followed by Ethiopian intelligence agents, and eventually decided to leave the country for his own safety.
The Kenyan government used similar terror tactics earlier this summer. It seems like the police in both countries are responding to legitimate problems by going completely overboard. And in Ethiopia's case, they're trying very hard to hide it from the West. I hope it doesn't work, although I have no idea whether greater awareness in the United States will really bring about any kind of change.
5 comments:
William,
The US foreign policy as it currently applies to the horn of Africa is creating a mini Iraq, mainly due to ill informed and incompetent State Dept. officials.
Please find below a letter I wrote in response to a CFR interview article. You will probably find it a bit long, but it gives you a highlight of what is going on and what mistakes are being made.
Dear Sirs
Re: http://www.cfr.org/publication/14074/
I am writing this e-mail in reply to the web interview article dated August 22, 2007 on the CFR site.
In the main, I agree with Mr Lyons , but disagree on few points as well. I will try to clarify the points with some evidence.
Mr Gwertzman
Did Ethiopia invade Somalia because the United States asked it to?
Mr Lyon
It's important to note that Ethiopia moved into Somalia not as the puppet or proxy for the United States. Ethiopia had its own very specific national security interest relating to Somalia. Ethiopia saw stepped-up attacks on Ethiopia as originating in Somalia, aided by Eritrea. Ethiopia saw this as a real threat to the Ethiopian state and region. That's why Ethiopia invaded, I believe, rather than just because the United States said "Go get al-Qaeda."
I don't agree with you on this point. Please watch a clip from the UK channel 4 program from Feb 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VJka6q16Os
It starts with
Channel 4 news has obtained an exclusive document revealing America's role in the planning and execution of last month's Ethiopian invasion of Somalia.
As the report shows, how ever much the State Department tries to deny it, the evidence is there.
Mr Gwertzman
Let's talk a bit about Eritrea, because U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi E. Frazer had a briefing last week in which she said that the United States is considering adding Eritrea to the list of states sponsoring terrorists. Why does Eritrea not make an effort to win friends with the U.S. government?
When it comes to Eritrea, the US foreign policy has a reputation to being biased towards Ethiopia.
After the second world war (1952) before the U.N. with the assistance from United States federated Eritrea to Ethiopia, the then U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles said
"From the point of view of justice, the opinion of the Eritrean people must receive consideration. Nevertheless, the strategic interests of the United States in the Red Sea Basin and world peace make it necessary that the country be linked with our ally Ethiopia."
Unfortunately, this attitude still exists in the State department. Following the the decision of "Permanent Court of Arbitration" in the Hague to give the controversial town to Eritrea, the United States (guarantor) to the final and binding decision was perfectly positioned to exert pressure on Ethiopia to accept the decision and demarcate the border but it did not.
Mr Lyons
It's difficult to compel Ethiopia for starters and, second of all, the United States has multiple interests with the Ethiopians and is reluctant to do so.
Again I don't agree with your conclusion. Ethiopia receives at least half a billion dollars in humanitarian aid per year and much more in military aid. This gives the United States a lot of clout on the Ethiopian decision making process.
To give you an example , when the opposition (CUD) leaders to the current Ethiopian government were in the verge of being sentenced to death, the uproar from Ethiopian diaspora and the threat of congress to cut military aid was the main reason behind the Ethiopian government U-turn to pardon the opposition.
This is what Sen. Patrick Leahy has to say.
Mr. President, during the Cold War we supported some of the world's most brutal, corrupt dictators because they were anti-communist. Their people, and our reputation, suffered as a result. Now the White House seems to support just about anyone who says they are against terrorism, no matter how undemocratic or corrupt. It is short sighted, it tarnishes our image, and it will cost us dearly in the long term.
leahy.senate.gov/press/200708/080307d.html
In my opinion the multiple interests of the United States in the horn of Africa, still can be better served by the United States being impartial guarantor and enforcing the rule of law when it comes to the final and binding decision of the border. This way both countries can stay strategic partners to the United States.
The recent threat by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi E. Frazer to include Eritrea on the list of states sponsoring terrorists is ridiculous, verging on incompetency.
The United States has not got that much leverage to pressure Eritrea with.
Eritrea can be accused of many things but to put it on list of states that sponsors terror is not going to fly.
"Eritrea Could Teach U.S. Much to Combat Terror" is what Rumsfield has to say in 2002, as Eritrea on its own was fighting Bin Laden and his gang crossing from Sudan trying to cause a spark between cohesive Christians and Muslims.
Link for full article.
www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=42407
Mr Lyons
The immediate thing that has raised the focus on U.S.-Eritrea relations is the United States has evidence that the Eritreans have been providing military assistance to the Islamic Courts in Somalia, to groups the United States regards as affiliated with al-Qaeda, to groups that are attacking Ethiopia, the U.S. strategic partner in the region. So the United States has ratcheted up the pressure to say "Eritrea, you must stop this assistance you're providing to these groups that the United States regards as terrorists in the Horn of Africa."
Sadly the so called evidence seems to be based on the widely discredited UN report that accused half a dozen countries including Eritrea of sending 2000 soldiers. When Ethiopia with the aid of US rolled into Somalia, there was no evidence of any Eritrean presence.
The same report also claimed 700 odd Somalis were fighting in Lebanon against IDF. IDF and the UN in Lebanon denied finding any Africans.
Link for full article jamestown.org/terrorism/news/
article.php?articleid=2370213
In conclusion, Eritrea's frustration is understandable. In the past it has done all the right things when it comes to fighting terror and assisting the United States and Israel in the horn of Africa.It was one of the few secular African countries to offer its ports,utilities and air space.
It is about time the State department recognizes the expanding real threat on the ground and change their policy towards Eritrea.
The border issue needs to be prioritized !!
Regards.
Simon Mace
Kobby thank you very much, for telling the world the truth, everything that u hve said is true.
We just hope that the good people in America can understand what the Bush administration is up to in the Horn of Africa.
Meles the dictator has sent he's thugs into somalia to kill and rape somalis with finance and support from the Bush administration.
What happened to the rule of law?
Recently the dictator of ethiopia has arrested several ethiopian journalist and medicine san frontieres has said that they hve seen genocide in the Ogaden region of ethiopia, where entire villages are burnt and 400, 000 ethiopians are displaced in the ogaden region.
The free world must know what is happening in the Horn of Africa, the free world must know what meles is doing in ethiopia and somalia.
There are 80, 000 political prisoners in jail since 2005, they hve no access to health care or basic needs and are subjected to torture on a daily basis.
Even the norwegina goverment that has worked and helepd the people of ethiopia for many years hve recnly been explled from ethiopia when they voiced their concerns what is happening in that country, i.e the beatings, rape and murder the people of ehiopia face.
I hope that the American people know what he bush administration is doing with the tax payers money in the Horn of africa, they are using that money to fund such an evil dictator as meles to continue the horrible oppression of he's own people.
What the American administration has done is Somalia could only be described as very harsh and crude.
The international community has forgotten about Somalia and has left the Somali people at the hands of callous warlords that care nothing whatsoever about law and order and peace in Somalia.
Therefore the Somali people took it upon themselves to put their house in order, they formed the union of Islamic courts to bring back the rule of law so that children can go back to schools and people can have normal lives.
The union of Islamic courts had the support of the majority of Somali people; they have proven to take the issue of the rule of law seriously.
Yes I know that many of u might think that the Islamic courts were just too restrictive in their ideas, but the vast majority were moderates.
The Somali people just wanted peace; they did not care about freedom to drink alcohol etc.
Now the United States government has helped the most hated warlords back to power in Somalia, the same warlords that killed 18 Americans.Plus they have made the vast majority of moderate Somalis now fundamentalist, the same ones that fight the Ethiopian invaders day and night in the city of Mogadishu.
Somalia has had six months of blessed peace with the UIC and now they are back to the killings, rape, and robbery thanks to bad American intervention and now there are 400, 000 Somalis that have left their homes without food and clean water, and 3,000 Somalis have died so far.
Tell me people who are the real terrorist, i would say that the bush administration are the biggest terrorist.
The west yells about the so call ‘’genocide’’ that is being committed in Darfur but they are so silent about the genocide taking place in Somalia, which they are definitely behind.
The US government does not respect international law, infact it does not even care bat upholding its own UN security resolution, where it stated that Ethiopian troops should not invade Somalia.In all this mess why is the UN so silent, they have not even said a word about Ethiopian troops invading Somalia, what happened to respecting a countries boundary?
It seems that the world follows the rule of the jungle.
Like i said the UIC gave the Somali people what many others could not, and that’s peace, law, unity.
Now since the UIC government has been replaced by the US sponsored Warlord Government (the same guys that killed 18 marines which was well documented in that film Black Hawk down) there have been 400, 000 Somalis that fled their homes in Mogadishu and into the countryside without clean water, food, and basic needs.Plus 3,000 Somalis have died.
The Ethiopian military seems to make things worse in Somalia, they are committing crimes against humanity, committing genocide.Most Americans sit in your comfortable home, drinking your coffee and u speak about a people and a situation that u have very little knowledge of.
Please go and do some research, read some articles, don't just watch Fox, CNN etc news.As an African who have the people of Somali at heart, you people don't understand what the actions of the Bush Administration has resulted in Somalia and the Horn of Africa.I just wish that u guys were better informed.
Nowadays there are very few independent Journalist that tell the Truth, the mainstream media seems to be controlled and they all spit out the same liesThere is so much information that is being hidden, especially what happened in SomaliaPlease people, watch this documentary about life under the Islamic courts.
Compare the rule of the Islamic courts with the rule of the warlord US sponsored warlord Government.
This US administration seems hell bent of causing Havoc in the Horn of Africa, Infact as a write this now the United States Government is encouraging the dictator meles of Ethiopia to attack Eritrea, which would be very bad for the people of the Horn.Where there were no terrorist sympathizers in the Horn, now there are so many, thanks to misguided US policy, If Iraq was not enough they had to move on to somalia.
I just wish the American people really knew what their government was up to in Africa, instead of fostering peace, they foster warlords to kill Somalis, instead of encouraging dictators such as the one in Ethiopia to respect the rule of law, they advise him to break it and invade Somalia.
Even in ethiopia the situation is very bad, you have one tribe in ethiopia who the dictator of Ethiopia hails from ruling countless other tribes with brute force, Executives and human right violations in the norm of the day in Ethiopia.
Infact Mr meles is committing a genocide against the people of Ogaden whos rebels killed 9 chinese oil workers around 3 months ago.
I wish the few reasonable people of America that stand for peace and justice can hold to account the Bush administration's Human rights abuses.America stands for terror, corruption i.e. by supporting and funding dictators like the presidents of Egypt and Pakistan and the prime minister of Ethiopia.
By the way if for whatever reason that the US government refused to accept the UIC government of Somalia, they should have put in place another institution that can compete with the UIC goverment to win the hearts and minds of the Somali people.
The fact that the US government choose to side with the coalition of warlords that were armed and financed by Ethiopia to continue the instability in Somalia, is extremely worrying to the Somali people and does not serve the interest of Somalia
It was strange to wake up to so many comments, especially since I had no idea that anyone would pay any attention to what I wrote.
I plead guilty to ignorance about important events in most parts of the world. I'm thankful for what I have learned from these comments, posted by folks that I don't think I've ever met.
To my anonymous friend who said, "I just wish that u guys were better informed," I can only say that I wish for the same thing. But I think that most of the people in my country don't really want to know, because we don't like to be faced with complex problems. But I am trying to learn, and I appreciate your help.
I have a cousin who is currently serving in Iraq who also served in Bosnia and Somalia a few years back. Some of the 18 troops that were killed in Somalia were under his command. He has repeatedly told me that the U.S. presence in Africa and the Middle East only seems to make the locals more angry.
U.S. Foreign Policy has become so ballistic it is almost impossible to manage. Many of the previous comments reveal that things are happening in Africa that the general public are unaware of, and the same goes for many U.S. officials. In regard to Africa, the main topic is the crisis in the Sudan, while many other tragedies happening in the Northeast (and elsewhere) are being overlooked. Republicans AND Democrats are talking about sending troops into Darfur even though we are unable to manage a war in Iraq. U.S. Foreign Policy needs to be revamped and needs a time out.
Oh. Hi Will! Great blog buddy.
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