14 December 2008
analysis
Washington, DC — With so many crises calling for attention, it may seem strange to single out any one of them as the "first" test for the Africa policy of the incoming Obama administration. Yet Somalia stands out not only because it represents an international failure to respond (as also in Darfur, the Congo, and Zimbabwe), but also for the fact that in recent years short-sighted United States policy has actively contributed to worsening an already desperate situation.
This policy disaster, moreover, has occurred with practically no public debate, and no signals as yet that incoming officials plan to change course.
A recent statement from the Enough Project warns that last-minute Bush administration actions threaten to leave policy land mines for the new administration in Somalia. And a new report from Human Rights Watch denounces not only human rights abuses on all sides of the conflict, but charges the United States, European powers, and Somalia's neighbors with adding fuel to the fire.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains the December 10 statement from the Enough Project, and a press release and extracts from the summary of the report "So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia."
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on Somalia and other resources, visit http://www.africafocus.org/country/somalia.php
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on U.S. Africa policy, see http://www.africafocus.org/country/usa-africa.php
For a January 2007 op-ed by AfricaFocus editor William Minter, entitled "Don't Replay Iraq in the Horn of Africa," see http://www.africafocus.org/editor/som0701_projo.php
Enough Project Releases Policy Statement on Bush Administration's 'Transition Land Mines' in Somalia
Washington D.C.
December 10, 2008
http://www.enoughproject.org/node/1345
Media Contact: Eileen White Read, 202-741-6376
As the Bush administration prepares to leave office, it is taking three ill-considered actions that threaten to exacerbate the already catastrophic situation in Somalia and tie the hands of the incoming Obama Administration. The Bush administration is:
urging Ethiopia to keep its armed forces in Somalia until after the administration leaves office;
pushing for authorization of a U.N. peacekeeping mission to protect the fractious and impotent Transitional Federal Government after Ethiopia's departure; and
moving to place Ethiopia's arch-rival Eritrea on the U.S.
State Department's State Sponsors of Terrorism list. There is little indication that the Bush Administration has thought through the implications of these major steps that would not only prolong the violence on the ground, but would hijack the incoming Obama Administration's policy prerogatives while leaving it with an even more intractable crisis in the troubled Horn of Africa.
"These eleventh hour shifts in policy will only create more blowback for the United States in the region, and serve as a de facto recruiting tool for the hard-line Islamist militia, or shabaab, that is wrapping itself in a mantle of Somali nationalism fighting foreign forces," said Enough Project adviser, and long-time Somalia expert, Ken Menkhaus, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Davidson College.
Ethiopia is currently scheduled to withdraw its forces from Somalia by the end of 2008 as part of the fragile U.N.-led Djibouti peace process. The two-year Ethiopian occupation of southern Somalia has been a magnet for violence and a growing insurgency in Somalia. By urging Ethiopia to maintain its presence in the capital, Mogadishu, the Bush administration is handing the shabaab a recruitment bonanza while undermining the credibility of moderate Somalis seeking to advance the Djibouti process.
"The Bush administration policy in Somalia has not only been ineffective, it has made the situation on the ground considerably worse," said Enough Project co-Chair John Prendergast. "It is not too much to ask that the Bush team practice the maxim of 'first, do no harm' before they depart. The incoming Obama administration should have the chance to rethink Somalia policy, including its counter-terrorism dimensions, without having to react to a firestorm of bad ideas weeks before the inauguration."
The Bush Administration is also pushing for a U.N. Security Council resolution to authorize a U.N. stabilization force for Somalia to replace departing Ethiopian troops. This is a bad idea on a number of fronts, and there is zero indication that the administration or the U.N. is serious about putting in place a genuinely credible force. There is no thirst among member states to contribute troops in Somalia at the current moment, and whatever U.N. forces could be scraped together would surely become the main target of insurgent attacks. In short, the Administration is pushing the United Nations to authorize a force that is designed to fail. This policy is the worst of both worlds: U.N. forces would be unlikely to create political or military stability in Somalia while giving shabaab militias a new foreign occupying force to attack.
Finally, by placing Eritrea on the U.S. State Department's State Sponsors of Terrorism list, the Bush administration would push Eritrea into a corner precisely at a time when they are willing to demonstrate some flexibility. There may or may not be sufficient evidence to make the case against Eritrea, but such a strategically significant determination should not be made by a lame duck administration. This determination has the potential to spoil U.S. peacemaking efforts in Sudan and Somalia, and could deepen the crisis in the Horn of Africa by fueling already intense antipathies between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Designating Eritrea as a State Sponsor of Terrorism would have no purpose other than to shrink the Obama administration's diplomatic room for maneuver in the region while possibly making the very real counter terrorism imperatives in Somalia more difficult to achieve.
Somalia: War Crimes Devastate Population
Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/12/08/somalia-war-crimes-devastate-population
The combatants in Somalia have inflicted more harm on civilians than on each other. - Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch
Outside Powers Exacerbate Crisis Through Failed Policies
December 8, 2008
(Nairobi) - All parties in the escalating conflict in Somalia have regularly committed war crimes and other serious abuses during the past year that have contributed to the country's humanitarian catastrophe, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch urged the United States, the European Union, and other major international actors to rethink their flawed approaches to the crisis and support efforts to ensure accountability.
The 104-page report, "So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia," describes how the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the Ethiopian forces that intervened in Somalia to support it and insurgent forces have committed widespread and serious violations of the laws of war. Frequent violations include indiscriminate attacks, killings, rape, use of civilians as human shields, and looting. Since early 2007, the escalating conflict has claimed thousands of civilian lives, displaced more than a million people, and driven out most of the population of Mogadishu, the capital. Increasing attacks on aid workers in the past year have severely limited relief operations and contributed to an emerging humanitarian crisis.
"The combatants in Somalia have inflicted more harm on civilians than on each other," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "There are no quick fixes in Somalia, but foreign governments need to stop adding fuel to the fire with misguided policies that empower human rights abusers."
Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, and a UN peacekeeping operation withdrew in failure in 1995. The years since have been violent and chaotic. In December 2006, Ethiopian military forces intervened to back Somalia's weak TFG against a coalition of Islamic courts that had won control of Mogadishu. In the past two years, the conflict has escalated dramatically, and internationally backed peace talks have failed to make any impact on the ground.
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I want to work in Africa.I am working in primary school.I am professor of pedagogic and socilogy.
It is devastating to discover how little credibility anglo-saxon dominated institutions,like the media and organizations like HRW,have these days in Africa. As an Ethiopian i must say that they are exceptionally hostile to Ethiopia as this report shows that calls a US-puppet regime that is in power for 18 years in Ethiopia thanks to anglo-saxon,in particular US, support ETHIOPIA !
NO NO MELES and co are not Ethiopia they are US puppets who are in power AGAINST THE WILL OF 80 million Ethiopians and who are inflicting enormous damage on Ethiopia since they came to power in 1991 thanks… [Read Full Text]
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