From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Jun 19 2009 - 07:49:50 EDT
Ethiopia- Deceptive Campaign to Whitewash and Cover up International Crimes
in Somalia
Sophia Tesfamariam, Jun 18, 2009
The minority mercenary regime in Ethiopia led by Meles Zenawi, the Bush
Administration's “staunch ally” in the “war on terror”, finding itself in
yet another self-created quagmire, has unleashed its loyal cadres, K-Street
lobbyists and members of the Eritrean Quislings League to divert attention
away from his lawlessness and belligerence, to white wash, downplay, and if
possible, cover up its bloody tracks in Ethiopia and Somalia. Observers have
described the childish and ignominious display by the regime’s cadres in New
York as “disgraceful and embarrassing”. It seems they made a total fool out
of themselves at Turtle Bay last week. In Washington, the regime’s lobbyists
attempted to misinform US lawmakers, but they were summarily rejected by
seasoned members who know the regime and its tactics only too well. US
lawmakers are tired of cleaning up the blood and carnage left behind by the
Bush Administration’s policies. They, like the American people, also want
change.
The minority regime, which has no confidence in its own abilities and
suffers from debilitating inferiority complex, always surrounds itself with
individuals and groups it feels will give it clout. This time, it gambled
wrong and its cadres brought along a decrepit band-wagon with some members
of IGAD and AU on board, with the hopes that the “weight of their voices”
would sway lawmakers in Washington and New York. The tantrums and frothing
by the regime's cadres in New York last week is nothing new, and also came
as no surprise for those who know the regime’s tried and tired, transparent
gimmick “Accusations in a mirror”-where the minority regime accuses others
of crimes it has committed or is planning to commit. By sending its henchmen
to Washington and New York, the regime was also testing the waters and the
Obama Administration.
The regime is sparing no expense in its orchestrated propaganda campaign and
no stone is being left unturned to advance it. In Washington, members of the
Eritrean Quislings League, which includes the Eritrean Islamic Jihad, a
terrorist group and a collection of runaway defectors, pedophiles and
torturers posing as “human rights” and “democracy advocates”, NED sponsored
“intellectuals and professionals” and other bankrupt individuals, have been
assigned to distribute the “facial masks” to be used in the rallies and
other activities planned by the regime. By calling on the 80,000 Eritreans
and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin that it inhumanly deported from Ethiopia
during the 1998-2000 border citing “security threats”, to return to Ethiopia
and claim their billion dollar properties that it confiscated, the regime
believes it can win the heart and mind of Eritreans and present itself as a
humanitarian regime to the international community. What a joke! Anyway,
these mercenary individuals and groups have been instructed to do whatever
it takes to convince Washington and the Obama Administration to maintain the
status quo in the Horn of Africa.
The desperate regime’s cadres and mercenaries are in Washington and New York
seeking the same grotesque patronage from the Obama Administration as the
one it enjoyed under Bush’s Washington and Kofi Annan’s United Nations. What
else can the desperate criminal regime in Ethiopia led by the deceptive
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi do, except beg, blame, threaten and whine for
its inadequacies and self created quagmires? The shameless minority regime
expected the Security Council to take punitive actions against Eritrea based
on “evidence” provided by the regime itself. It expected to be bailed out,
absolved of its crimes, by having Eritrea penalized, even if it meant
violating international law and the UN Charter and violating the sovereign
rights of the Eritrean people. It wanted sanctions against Eritrea for not
giving its blessings to the TNG in Somalia. This shameless act of hypocrisy
comes as no surprise as it is the nature of the regime to distort the truth
and the facts and then to cry foul when it is cornered.
The regime’s cadres were heard preaching about international law and human
rights. A repressive backward thugocracy that subjugates the Ethiopian
people and is violating international law and the UN Charter by invading and
occupying Somalia and is occupying sovereign Eritrean territories, including
Badme, a regime that has committed genocides and numerous other human rights
violations in Gambela, Ogaden and Oromia regions of Ethiopia, does not have
the moral or legal authority, credibility or integrity to call for sanctions
against Eritrea…or any other country for that matter. It ought to take a
good look at itself first, before pointing its blood soaked fingers at
others. Had it not been for Washington’s policy of appeasement, the people
of the Horn would have used their meager resources to develop their nations
instead of fighting the regime and its mercenaries.
The shameless regime’s cadres brought a laundry list of actions to be taken
against Eritrea and were hoping that by accusing Eritrea of many violations,
the Security Council would pick from the list and take actions against
Eritrea. For the last 8 years, emboldened by the silence and inaction of the
US-led international community, the diplomatic, financial, military and
political shield and support it received from the UN under the corrupt
former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and from the Bush Administration,
specifically the Secretary of State and her protégé, the incompetent and
vindictive Jendayi E. Frazer the regime committed countless crimes against
the people of Ethiopia and Somalia. By diverting attention away from itself
and its crimes in Somalia, it is hoping the Obama Administration will not
change course but follow the same destructive and dangerous policies for
Africa.
Somalia’s invasion and occupation, just like the invasion and occupation of
Iraq, was based on a lie. Meles Zenawi’s and incompetent and vindictive
Jendayi E. Frazier, the former US Secretary of State for African Affairs
orchestrated an elaborate and “tailored intelligence disinformation
campaign” to invade and occupy Somalia in 2006 to oust the Union of Islamic
Courts and “prop up” the illegitimate Transitional National Government of
Somalia led by Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi. The US backed
Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Somalia did not produce the intended
outcome; it did not produce the three terrorists who were responsible for
the bombing of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, nor did it produce
any Al Qaeda linked “terrorists” that Frazier and her Horn confidante Meles
Zenawi, said were operating in Somalia.
After creating the greatest humanitarian disaster in the history of Somalia,
killing over 17000 innocent Somalis, and after carrying out the
extra-judicial murder of thousands more it labeled “extremists”,
“Islamists”, “fundamentalists”, “Taliban-like” etc. etc., destroying
Somalia’s schools, clinics, markets, ports, airports and other vital
infrastructures, pulverizing Somali villages and farms and causing the
displacement of over one million Somalis, the regime was hoping to white
wash its “mistakes and miscalculations” in Somalia by pointing its bloody
fingers at Eritrea. The mercenary regime’s cadres were at the UN hoping to
collect their brownie points and service pins for the destruction of
Somalia. By pointing fingers at Eritrea and getting the Security Council to
take punitive actions against Eritrea based on fabrications by “Ethiopian
intelligence”, the minority regime was hoping it would be absolved of the
international crimes that it committed in Somalia.
In order to understand the regime’s warped thinking we need to go back to
the events on last December and the shenanigans in Djibouti orchestrated by
Jendayi E. Frazier and her criminal cohorts. At the 11th hour, just as the
Bush Administration was leaving office, Meles Zenawi and his handlers
hurriedly established yet another Transitional National Government (TNG) for
Somalia, in Djibouti. Forcing Abdulahi Yusuf to step down (by paying him
well), the Union of Islamic Court's Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, brought from
Eritrea where he had taken refuge when Ethiopia invaded Somalia, was
installed at the helm. Once again, instead of allowing the Somali people to
come together and decide for themselves, Meles Zenawi and Jendayi Frazier
handpicked the amenable “moderate Sheikh Sharif Ahmed” to lord over the
Somali people. The illegitimate TNG is facing the same opposition, if not
worse, that Abdulahi Yusuf’s TNG faced. Meles and company thought it was a
smart move to present the Obama Administration with a fait accompli in
Somalia-we’ll have to wait and see how this deceptive game plays out.
As for Ethiopia’s violations of the UN arms embargo on Somalia, they are
well documented and Ethiopia’s interventions in Somalia, using several
pretexts, precede the Eritrea Ethiopia border conflict. It was in violation
of the UN charter, the African Union Charter and Security Council resolution
1724 that Ethiopia invaded and occupied of Somalia. It was also in violation
of the Intergovernmental Agency for Development’s (IGAD) 2005 resolution
that authorized the formation of IGAD Peace Support Mission to Somalia
(IGASOM) and specifically called for non-interference by “neighboring
states”. The Ethiopian fabrications and claims about the presence of "2000
Eritrean troops fighting alongside the UIC" also turned out to be a blatant
lie. As with all their unsubstantiated allegations and assertions at the
time, it was a convenient diversion, a deceptive decoy, to camouflage the
truth and justify the invasion and occupation of Somalia.
UN Reports dating back to 1997 show that Ethiopia, in violation of the UN
embargo on Somalia, has been delivering “shipment of arms consisting
primarily of ammunition, including AK-47s and PKMs; light weapons and mines”
which was transported by road through the porous Somali/Ethiopian border.
The reports also show a constant flow of arms from Ethiopia to Kenya and
from Kenya to Somalia. Ethiopia has also invaded and occupied parts of
Somalia in the past. It has used the pretext of hunting down members of the
group Al-Ittihad- citing national security concerns, the groups tenuous
links to Al Qaeda have been used as an excuse for the regime’s interference
and involvement in Somalia’s internal affairs.
The UN reports say that shipment of arms to Somalia increased as the
minority regime worked to undermine the Transitional National Government of
Somalia that was established in Arta, Djibouti in 2001. The regime formed
the group calling itself the Somalis Reconciliation and Restoration Council,
made up of factions that were hostile to the TNG and its allies and provided
it training, arms and ammunition. According to UN reports, Ethiopia has been
a major source of weapons for a number of Somali groups since. In addition,
in violation of the Arms Embargo on Somalia, the United States and Ethiopia
financed and supported a coalition of warlords calling themselves the
Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT).
The ARPCT prevented the Abdulahi Yusuf’s TNG from relocating from Kenya
where it was established. Two years later, in 2006, it established itself in
Somalia and even then, it was straddled between Baidoa and Jowhar, unable to
establish itself in Mogadishu. When the UIC, led by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed
kicked out the US and Ethiopia supported ARPCT from Mogadishu in 2006 and
began to expand its influence all over Somalia, Jendayi E. Frazier and her
Horn advisors decided to stop it. Ethiopia invaded Somalia and ousted the
UIC and Sheikh Sharif and with Ethiopia’s help, Abdulahi Yusuf entered
Mogadishu. The rest is bloody history.
Not only has Ethiopia been meddling in Somalia’s internal affairs, it is
also the only party that has consistently disrupted and prevented the
stabilization of Somalia. It is also the only party that has fueled the
fighting by providing weapons to various warring factions vying for power.
Here is a partial list of the weapons provided by Ethiopia in violation of
UN Security Council resolutions and the UN embargo on Somalia as documented
by the UN:
• “…On 30 October 1997, a C- 130 military transport aircraft arrived from
Ethiopia with ammunition for small arms, rocket propelled grenades, machine
guns, antipersonnel landmines and grenades...”
• “…April 2001:12 mortars, several M30 artillery pieces, M30 artillery
ammunition, mortar bombs, landmines and other unspecified ammunition for
militia opposed to TNG…”
• “…April 2001-Assault rifles, light machine guns, 4 heavy machine guns, 4
106mm caliber antitank guns, ammunition for the aforementioned items-for
Abdulahi Yusuf…”
• “…7 June 2001- Nine heavy trucks containing anti-aircraft guns, assault
rifles and mortars of different calibers along with ammunition for the
aforementioned items …”
Steve Bloomfield reporting for the Independent in his 16 November 2006[1]
report wrote:
“…Ethiopia, which is estimated to have some 6,000 troops already in Somalia,
is also believed to have brought in tanks and surface-to-air missiles…”
Reuters in its 9 June 2009 report[2] said:
“…Weapons are captured, sold and recycled constantly between both sides,
experts say. Many arms have come from Ethiopian soldiers who intervened in
Somalia between 2006 and early 2009… Weapons are also said to pour across
the porous borders of Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia, arriving by plane and
through seas infested by pirates who are themselves armed to the teeth…”
On 9 July 2008 Hiiran online reported the following:
“…On July 9, Islamists seized a large shipment of Ethiopian arms and
military vehicles from an armored convoy heading from Balidogle Airport to
Baidoa meant for the TFG military…”
There is ample evidence to show that the regime in Ethiopia is training and
arming the Islamist group Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama, various clan militias and
warlords, including Bare Aden Shire ("Bare Hilale") the defense minister of
the former TNG led by Abdulahi Yusuf and Ali Mohammed Ghedi. Bare Hilale is
linked with the Juba Valley Alliance, a militia group.
On 24 May 2008 Reuters reported the following:
“…Dumisani Kumalo, chairman of the U.N. Security Council's Somalia sanctions
committee and the South African envoy to the body, accuses "elements" of an
AU peacekeeping force in Somalia and Ethiopian and Somali government troops
of arms trafficking…The South African envoy said 80 percent of ammunition on
sale in Somali markets come from Ethiopian and Somali troops…the presence of
Ethiopian troops inside Somalia was itself a violation of the 16-year-old
arms ban...”
The UN embargo on Somalia is not the only embargo that Ethiopia has
violated, it should be recalled that there were reports citing Ethiopian
violations of the UN embargo against North Korea also, but once again, with
its friends at the State Department doing its lobbying, the Bush
Administration decided to look the other way. Had it been any other country,
the “ton of bricks” would have been thrown at it. Here is how Reuters
explained Washington’s duplicity and hypocrisy in its 7 April 2007 news
report:
“…The Bush administration allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms
purchase from North Korea in an apparent violation of a U.N. Security
Council sanctions resolution passed months earlier over its nuclear test…the
United States allowed the January arms delivery in part because Ethiopia was
fighting Islamic militias in Somalia in an offensive that aided U.S.
policies of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa…”
Today, by portraying Eritrea as the culprit for the ongoing violence in
Somalia, the minority regime and its partners… in pecking order-IGAD, AU and
the regime’s multi million dollar K-Street lobbyists probably believed that
the fabricated accusations and coordinated deceptive ploys would work….they
may have worked Bush’s Washington, but not this time….as they say in
Texas…that dog won’t hunt!
No matter what comical and desperate gimmicks the regime cooks up at Menelik
Palace, its days are numbered. The citizens of the Horn, Ethiopians,
Eritreans and Somalis have had enough. The international community is also
fed up with the regime that has refused to live up to its international
obligations. Its carte blanches to do as it pleased in the Horn is about to
be revoked permanently.
The rule of law must prevail over the law of the jungle!
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