From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Tue Apr 06 2010 - 20:42:00 EDT
http://www.redress.cc/global/tcoles20100401
Britain and America linked to Somali pirates, Somalia still suffers
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By Tim Coles
1 April 2010
Tim Coles argues that British and US policies in Somalia, and London’s
and Washington’s support for warlord Abdullahi Yusuf’s Transitional
Federal Government, belie their opposition to the Somali pirates.
Britain’s former chief of the General Staff, Richard Dannatt, has
clarified the role of British institutions in world affairs. “[S]uccess
can only be achieved if our actions are fully integrated with our
government partners in the FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office], DFID
[Department for International Development] and all the other instruments of
national power” (2009).
According to DFID, one of the instruments of national power, “[a]cross
the country [Somalia], as fighting cuts off the delivery of essential
services and a prolonged drought causes widespread crop failure, an
estimated 3.76 million people – close to 40 per cent of the population
– are thought to require emergency help. In no other country in the world
is so large a proportion of the population in need of relief assistance”
(2009).
The "Department for International Development boasts of its millions of
pounds in aid donations, but it omits the fact that Britain has helped to
plunge Somalia into disaster by destroying the Union of Islamic Courts
which were recognized under UN Resolution 1725."
DFID boasts of its millions of pounds in aid donations, but it omits the
fact that Britain has helped to plunge Somalia into disaster by destroying
the Union of Islamic Courts which were recognized under UN Resolution 1725.
Britain and America supported the warlords of the Transitional Federal
Government (TFG) which Ethiopia, under US auspices, sought to establish in
Somalia in December 2006.
The TFG was led by warlord Abdullahi Yusuf, whom the Blair government
supported with a house, an NHS liver transplant and finance for his militia
(Hartley 2008; Campbell 2005).
By 2009, the situation had not improved: Human Rights Watch reported that
“[m]ore than 100,000 people almost all of them from Somalia and Ethiopia
have arrived by boat along Yemen's coast during the past two years. Most
are fleeing war or persecution at home or are in search of work” (HRW
2009). In line with the standard, and breathtaking, hypocrisy of the
British rulers, Yemen is now called a terrorist hotbed.
Despite this horror, the media, following the demands of the government,
still likes to condemn pirates. Royal Institute of International Affairs
analyst Roger Middleton found that “[t]he only period during which piracy
virtually vanished around Somalia was during the six months of rule by the
Islamic Courts Union in the second half of 2006. This indicates that a
functioning government in Somalia is capable of controlling piracy”
(Middleton 2008, 3). In that case, if Britain and America really want to
end piracy they wouldn’t have destroyed the Union of Islamic Courts. Not
surprisingly, Britain and America are linked to the pirates who funded none
other than Abdullahi Yusuf.
Middleton confirmed:
Puntland, the semi-autonomous region in the northeast of the country,
appears to be the base for most pirates in Somalia… The fact that the
pirates originate from Puntland is significant as this is also the home
region of President Abdullahi Yusuf. As one expert said, “money will go
to Yusuf as a gesture of goodwill to a regional leader” – so even if
the higher echelons of Somali government and clan structure are not
directly involved in organizing piracy, they probably do benefit...
Puntland is one of the poorest areas of Somalia, so the financial
attraction of piracy is strong. Somalia’s fishing industry has collapsed
in the last 15 years and its waters are being heavily fished by European,
Asian and African ships (2008, 4-5).
This another example of the West’s benevolence.
The “Somalia has links with al-Qaeda” thread on which the US is hanging
its Somalia ambitions is, at times, embarrassingly thin. In 2010 BBC Africa
reported that the TFG “confirmed to the BBC that an Al-Qaeda fighter had
been killed, but did not name him and said the government ‘would provide
evidence later’” (BBC Africa 2010).
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Sources
BBC Africa, “Somali forces kill al-Qaeda man'’, 9 February 2010
Campbell, D., “Briton’s widow seeks arrest of Somali president”,
Guardian, 27 May 2005
Dannatt, R., “A Perspective on the nature of future conflict”,
transcript, Friday 15 May 2009, Royal Institute of International Affairs
(Chatham House)
Department for International Development, “Fighting the threat of
starvation in Somalia”, 16 October 2009
Hartley, A., “The terror of Tesco’s finest...”, Daily Mail online, 23
May 2008b
Human Rights Watch, “Yemen: asylum seekers run gauntlet of abuses. Tens
of thousands face murderous smugglers at sea, abusive policies on land”,
December 20 2009a
------------ 2009b, “From horror to hopelessness: Kenya’s forgotten
Somali refugee crisis, NY: HRW
------------ 2008, “So much to fear”: war crimes and the devastation of
Somalia, NY: HRW
Middleton, R., “Piracy in Somalia: threatening global trade, feeding
local wars”, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House),
Briefing paper, October 2008
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Tim Coles is a filmmaker who posts on www.youtube.com/timcoles. His latest
film is "War crimes in Fallujah: what the media oesn't report" and "Behind
the wall: a film for Suaad and the people of Palestine".
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