Somalia: realities, options and consequences for Ethiopia

Before I move directly into writing about the current issues inside Somalia , I would like to first start by saying Congratulations to the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Forces (EPRDF) for their successful conclusion of the 7th organizational Congress held at SNNPR.

In December 2006, our forces intervened in Somalia to help the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia and to crush the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that waged jihad on our country. Since then, after successfully completing our first mission, we have not been successful in our second mission of helping to pacify Somalia or at least allow the TFG gain a better hold of southern Somalia .

There were many mistakes made during the last nearly 2 years of Ethiopian intervention in Somalia . Some of these include the following five errors:

1. Underestimation of media influence in Mogadishu

One of the most significant blunders of our country’s intervention in Somalia was our underestimation of the Somali media in Mogadishu , particularly radios. During the last 17 years of chaos in Somalia , one thing that has flourished in Somalia was the private media. It has been a perfect “free” market, with each community and clans having various media outlets, they added fuel to the long civil war. Lacking government regulation, only America ’s Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bankrupt financial institutions have rampaged more inside an uncontrolled free market. The anarchy inside Somalia was mostly based on clan or sub-clan wars, and as expected the private media in Somalia was the exact replica of the clan arrangements and divisions. Just like each clan had its own militias and warlords, they also each had a media outlet or more. With the Hawiye clan dominating the politics in Mogadishu , it was typical that most of the media was owned by them in the area, particularly by the Habar Gidir sub-clan of the region. And since the ICU leader Sheik Aweys is from the Habar Gidir clan, as are most of the ICU fighters and supporters, the media superiority of the pro-ICU Habar Gidir of the Hawiye clan was multiplied exponentially, one example being Shabelle Media Network and co who have very significant audience on the ground in Mogadishu and surroundings. For this reason, the anti-TFG and anti-Ethiopia propaganda by these media outlets began since day one, with allegations of Ethiopian soldiers raping Somali women and TFG soldiers robbing businesses.

After those initial days of propaganda, the pro-ICU media outlets went on a campaign of fabrications and more anti-TFG propaganda. These media outlets did many things including
- Exaggerate ICU’s success
- Dehumanize “warlord” militias
- Fabricate Ethiopia ’s intentions
- Exaggerate the extent of the violence
When they exaggerated ICU’s success, it was both about the pre-war success and success during its ongoing war. The media outlets and ICU supporters did a good job of making ICU’s six month rule in Mogadishu appear like peaceful and heavenly. Even though, anti-ICU media outlets were banned, women rights were violated, people were executed and many fundamental rights of the moderate Muslim Somalis were denied, the ICU supporters did an amazing job of glorifying ICU’s short rule. This influenced not only Somalis but also the international community and international media who started to parrot and glorify the ICU’s “peaceful” rule. In addition to the violations by ICU mentioned above, the fact that ICU was only one or two clans based and that it was due to clash with Puntland and others were ignored by the international media and only the pro-ICU viewpoints were recycled. more..http://aigaforum.com/articles/Somalia_gemeda_092308.htm