At least 3.5 million Somalians are now on the edge of a precipice, without access to food, health services or basic security, writes FINTAN O'TOOLEIF YOU live in the West, you assume that the “war on terror” invented by George Bush’s neo-conservative allies was an unfortunate episode that ended with the election of Barack Obama. If you visit east Africa, as I did last week, you find that its consequences are becoming ever more acute. In the West, Somalia is a place known for the film Black Hawk Down and pesky pirates. In Kenya, where I was, it is the source of refugees and guns flowing across the border, and a threat so grave that there is now serious talk of sending in troops.
Somalia is the classic failed state, and many of us remember the early 1990s when Mary Robinson drew attention to a humanitarian crisis and Bill Clinton launched an ultimately disastrous military intervention.
For a short period, however, Somalia seemed to be emerging from anarchy. For seven months in 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a broad coalition of Islamist factions, managed to govern all of Mogadishu and most of south-central Somalia. The ICU established the rule of law and a good level of general security for the ordinary population. It opened the seaports and the international airport.
Unfortunately, however, the US and the EU were supporting a chimerical “transitional federal government” (TFG), cobbled together at international conferences but with virtually no support on the ground. Unfortunately, too, some hardliners within the ICU began to push irredentist territorial claims against Ethiopia and to ally themselves with Ethiopia’s enemy Eritrea. With US support, Ethiopia invaded Somalia and routed the ICU. The TFG returned to Mogadishu under Ethiopian patronage, but without any discernible popular support. Within a few weeks, there was a renewed insurgency against the Ethiopians and the TFG. The response was vicious, with indiscriminate attacks on civilian neighbourhoods, involving murders, arbitrary arrests, looting, beatings and rape...more..http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0707/1224250170927.html
Somalia is the classic failed state, and many of us remember the early 1990s when Mary Robinson drew attention to a humanitarian crisis and Bill Clinton launched an ultimately disastrous military intervention.
For a short period, however, Somalia seemed to be emerging from anarchy. For seven months in 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a broad coalition of Islamist factions, managed to govern all of Mogadishu and most of south-central Somalia. The ICU established the rule of law and a good level of general security for the ordinary population. It opened the seaports and the international airport.
Unfortunately, however, the US and the EU were supporting a chimerical “transitional federal government” (TFG), cobbled together at international conferences but with virtually no support on the ground. Unfortunately, too, some hardliners within the ICU began to push irredentist territorial claims against Ethiopia and to ally themselves with Ethiopia’s enemy Eritrea. With US support, Ethiopia invaded Somalia and routed the ICU. The TFG returned to Mogadishu under Ethiopian patronage, but without any discernible popular support. Within a few weeks, there was a renewed insurgency against the Ethiopians and the TFG. The response was vicious, with indiscriminate attacks on civilian neighbourhoods, involving murders, arbitrary arrests, looting, beatings and rape...more..http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0707/1224250170927.html
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