From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat Nov 07 2009 - 06:46:11 EST
Somalia: The man who destroyed Somalia...Meles Zenawi: Editorial
07/11/09 09:10
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.php?sid=14215&tirsan=3
We have seen in decades passed how groups that seemed strong and capable of
uniting or at least providing some sense of sanity for the common Somali
folks came and went. We have had moments that gave us some sense of hope in
the midst of turmoil and carnage. But those hopeful moments for our beloved
country soon evaporated and we have seen things returning to the old ways of
chaos and destitution for our good people. We sometimes ask ourselves "how
did we get to this low point in our history?".
Why I am writing this column is to inform my people on what got us to "this
low point in our history". What you will read here is a clear predictable
trends that is used against us to continue chaos in Somalia and never allow
it to be a viable state among nations of the world. Unless we understand
this trends we will never be able to come out of this hell-hole our enemies
have dug for us.
Some of you are asking by now " what are this predictable trends?". My
fellow Somalis it is a proven strategy that is been used all over the world
for centuries to weaken nations and conquer them. The enemies of Somalia
started using it soon after the Ethiopia-Somalia war of 1977. The British
and the Italians used it quite effectively in Somalia during colonization.
Simply put, our enemies have been quite effective in dividing us and arming
us against one another. It's been happening for a longtime and it is about
time we start to pay attention and inform ourselves on who is our friend and
who is our enemy. Not all friends are a sincere friends, and todays friends
are tomorrows enemies. There are some friends who have long term objectives
and you will never know until they reach their desired objectives, by then
it is too late.
When a detective is investigating a murder, one of the questions he will ask
himself to determine who killed the victim is " who will benefit from the
death of this person?". So, lets put that questions to the case of Somalia.
Who benefits or is interested in the permanent destruction of Somalia?. The
list is long, but I will use the proactive ones in the Somali political
sphere. Lets start with the case of Ethiopia and you will start to see a
self reinforcing trend.
Ethiopia and Somalia went to war in 1977 over the Ogaden region. Ethiopia
has over five million ethnic somali inhabitants in the Ogaden region, some
of them are waging war against Ethiopia itself {ONLF}. Ethiopia is 50
percent muslim but always ruled by christian, so there is balance to be
protected there by the christian rulers. Ethiopia is a landlocked country
and planning to use port of Berbera for pennies on the dollar. Ethiopia is a
loose nation by that I mean a collection of many tribes that can easily be
fragmented. Ethiopia has a bitter enemy to north in the name of Eritrea and
don't want a possible enemy in name of strong Somalia that has grievances
against Ethiopia i.e Ogaden region.
By now we are starting to see Ethiopia is well happy with the current Somali
situation as long as we keep fighting among ourselves Ethiopia will supply
the weapons and if one group is getting the upper hand, he will be called a
terrorist or Ethiopia will come in and crush him with its military. That is
what they have been doing for the last 18 yrs. Arming all the groups with
the same amount of weapons and if one is winning Ethiopia will decrease his
share of arms and Ethiopia will increase his opponents share, so nobody wins
and we will continue to be in a perpetual state of war.
The greatest strategist of the 21st century in Africa is Meles Zenawi. He
was a rebel leader at the age of 27 and after few years overthrew the
strongest military in Africa at that time. Meles is no fool and his
potential future enemy is strong Somali republic to his east. He will do
anything to keep that from ever becoming a reality. He will use every trick
in the book to defame and defeat any viable group that wants to rule
Somalia. You should ask this the former president Abdiqassim Salat Hassan.
He will tell you it was Ethiopia that was sending weapons to various
warlords to oppose his government for apparently no reason. Abdiqassim is
not an extremist religious radical. So, why was Ethiopia against his
government?. Simple, Ethiopia is safeguarding its self interest. Ethiopian
policy is "no Somalia Government". Now you know the trends. Even the TFG of
Sheikh Sharif will be a victim. Ethiopia will find some excuse to secretly
arm some group against it. But for now Ethiopia is happy with the dual
between Alshabaab, and Ahlu Sunna and TFG. If Ahlu Sunna and the government
are winning Ethiopia is not going to allow anyone to dominate Somalia, so
Ethiopia will secretly start arming some Somali group against the government
and chaos will continue. Ethiopia is so good at and they have done it so
many times what I have mentioned in this article that their strategies
became a predictable trends.
Eritrea is another nightmare of the Somali people. Do you think Eritrea
cares about the Somali people?. They could careless if the Somali race got
wiped out of the planet earth. So, what is their business with meddling in
Somali affairs?. Most people don't understand, but Eritrea is like another
Ethiopia. Eritrea wants the war in Somalia to continue, preferably Ethiopian
forces fighting in Somali soil against Alshabab. Their main objective is to
weaken the Ethiopian military let it be inside Somalia or inside Ethiopia
itself.
How can we reverse the tide against us the Somali people. how can we out
smart this two countries and get them out of our business.
They will always have a Somali fool to do their dirty work in Somalia for
them. As soon as we realize that our enemies always wants us divided, we
will come together and defeat them. I pray the leaders of Alshabaab, Hisbul
Islam, Ahlu Sunna and TFG get my point and realize that we can't afford
another twenty years of war. It is not too late to bring the Somali people
together and let us decide our future and not Ethiopia or Eritrea.
The other actor in the Somalia chaos is the international jihadist who were
defeated in Iraq and afghanistan. This men are dangerous and have no place
in the midst of the Somali people. We have already seen their influence in
Somalia. Suicide bombings is not what Somali people are known for. They are
a sore that once they blossom in a region it is very difficult to get rid of
them. Because they brainwash the youth and spread their dangerous and
unrealitisc ideology, and once they do that your own people will be just
like them. That is what is currently going on in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
If you remember during the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union a lot
of international jihadist flocked to Afghanistan and amongst the jihadist
was young Osama bin Laden. And you remember what he did 12 yrs later. The
international Jihadist don't want Somalia to be a state that will abide by
laws and norms. They want the chaos to continue, that is the kind of
environment they flourish in.
The Somali leaders need to admit to themselves that they will never win with
force, because the enemies of Somalia will never allow that to happen. There
is a lots of countries and groups that have vested interest in the
continuations of the chaos in Somalia. They also need to stop the narrow
minded clanish interest they always fight for and look at the bigger
picture.
Returning to the case of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is currently arming and training
Ahlu Sunna and forces loyal to the TFG. Ethiopia's cover story is Alshabab
is a radical terrorist group. In reality Alshabab will not pose a serious
threat to Ethiopia for at least 15 yrs because Somalia is such a destroyed
country and international community will slap an arms embargo on Alshabab
administration in Somalia anyway. But Ethiopia don't want to take the risk
of any strong Somali government in the future. They rather have Somalia the
way it is now and Ethiopia will make sure Somalia stays that way.
Ethiopia wants the complete disintegration of Somalia. Ethiopia prefers
Somalia to be split into smaller states. The prove is, while Ethiopia is
claiming to be helping the TFG on the other hand Ethiopia recognized the
separatist region of Somaliland. As a matter of fact Ethiopia accepts
Somaliland issued passport that is enough sign that Ethiopia recognises
Somaliland as a sovereign country with its national flag. What a double
standard. Ethiopia is currently in negotiation with
Hargeisa over planned use of port of Berbera by Ethiopians. Ethiopia is
running away from Djibouti port because Djibouti recently raised taxation
and fees on Ethiopian goods passing through Djiboutian ports. And both
Djibouti and Somaliland are Somalis. That is how Ethiopia wants, divided
people.
Eritrea is scared of Ethiopia, they want to see weak Ethiopia. They want to
weaken Ethiopia, but they don't want to do it themselves. That is why they
support groups like Alshabab and Hisbul Islam. It is not because they care
about the Somali people or they agree with the ideology of this two groups.
For them it is all about Ethiopia. If Ethiopia goes east Eritrea will go
west. Because Eritrea knows Ethiopia is always working for its interest.
This things are self reinforcing. How can we come out of this mess. You
know the Somali people are the most hardheaded people I have ever met, and
our leaders are the most hardheaded of . Unless our leaders understand this
countries ulterior motives and what drives them to Somali politics we will
be in this mess. We need our leaders to understand Ethiopia and Eritrea
wants the permanent destruction of Somalia & its people.
They also need to stop getting military aid from this countries and stop
fighting amongst themselves. Because fighting and chaos is what this two
countries want. The only way we will come out of this mess is through the
old Somali way of negotiation and understanding each other. The Somali
people are brothers and it makes me sick to see one brother killing another
brother and Tigreys are providing the weapons to both of them. If this chaos
and destruction continues, I don't think Somalia will be a country of its
own.
I think the UN will take over Somalia or the Somali people will be in such a
weak state that the country will be taken over or divide between Kenya and
Ethiopia, And there will be no group or people willing or have the power to
defend it. Ethiopians are coming in and out of Somalia at will without any
regards to Somalia's territorial integrity and there is no one saying
anything about it. Do you know that Ethiopia claims to own some parts of
Somalia?. Ethiopia is a landlocked country and would love to have a port
of it's own, and Somalia being such a destroyed country I truly think it
must be tempting to Ethiopia to annex some part of Somalia and have access
to the Indian Ocean and thus to a port.
Somalis wakeup and Unite before we get to a irreversible situation. Our
country was fought for by likes of Sayyid Abdille Hassan and the Darvish.
Our land is sacred and should be treated as such. We have weakened ourselves
and the Ethiopians want us to be weak for ever. Meles Zenawi and Essais
Afeworki don't care about the Somali people. Meles Zenawi would actually
like to see us wiped out of the earth so he can take the pristine land our
forefathers fought so hard for.
The issue of Clan division is another part of our culture that we need to
discard in the interest of social stability. The clan thing is really
divisive and in reality is a tool that never worked for the interest of the
Somali people. The clan system was actually meant for the nomads and have no
place in an urban setting. It should be who you understand well and not who
is your "gang member". Because the clan is a gang and we don't know if all
the things the older people talk about is true or not like that clan is
related to that clan and so forth. I am sure if we all get a DNA test and
try to see who is really related to who, we will all be disappointed and
look like fools, because we have been killing each other over something that
is not true and thus based on a lie. I think the clan was setup by a
collection of nomadic families to help each other in protecting their
animals and their lives from neighboring families or groups some many many
years ago. Some families called themselves so and so and others so and so,
and thus clan was formed in Somali soil. Centuries ago Somalia was a violent
place and you had to get the help you can get to defend yourself and your
lively-hood, power in numbers. And now that lively-hood is endangered again
by Ethiopia, because Ethiopia is planning to dam the only two rivers that
flow through Somali soil and thus taking away the lively-hood of millions of
Somalis with it. The Ethiopian populations is increasing and its been
predicted that Ethiopia will have about 125 million people by 2025. Ethiopia
needs all the water it can get to support such a massive increase in
population. Juba and Shabelle rivers will provide that water and no Somali
man will say a thing about it, because Somalia is not and will not be in a
position to say a thing about that robbery. Wakeup my people before it is
too late.
By Eng. Barre Burale