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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Aug 13 2010 - 14:10:05 EDT
EU-Somalia mission could undermine regional stability
13.08.2010
Somalia has drifted through 20 years of anarchy and war. The international
community has recommitted itself to establishing order there. But an EU
mission to train Somali soldiers in Uganda has come under scrutiny.
In 1993, the United States organized a peacekeeping mission under the
auspices of the United Nations to end a famine that gripped the Horn of
Africa. Germany, in its first major military mission outside of Europe since
World War II, sent 1,700 soldiers in support. But as the humanitarian
mission degenerated into a bloody counterinsurgency operation, the West
retreated from a country that appeared to be permanently broken.
Today, the West has begun to hesitantly pick up where it left off in 1993 in
a renewed bid to put Somalia back together again. After September 11, the
United States dispatched naval forces to the Gulf of Aden in order to
prevent Islamic terrorists from taking refuge in Somalia.
The EU contributes to this effort through its own naval mission, Operation
Atalanta. In May, the EU began training 2,000 Somali soldiers in neighboring
Uganda.
"This mission is a clear sign of the solidarity of Europe with Somalia and
the entire continent," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle during
a trip to the region last month. "In the fight against terrorism and
extremism, we have to stand together. We will do what we can in order to
stabilize Somalia."
Militant group gaining ground
A fundamentalist Islamic movement in Somalia has the West worried. In 2003,
a grassroots movement began to establish Islamic-based courts in Mogadishu
in order to bring the city under control and stem rampant violence and
criminality. The effort began to yield results, and the courts banded
together, creating a movement called the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).
An internationally recognized interim government in the Somali city of
Baidoa was helpless as the movement began to pick up steam, spreading its
control throughout the country. Ethiopia, which has a long and complicated
history with Somalia, began to mobilize its military in an operation many
believe was supported by the US. The Ethiopian army ultimately intervened
during the winter of 2006, sweeping the UIC out of Mogadishu and giving the
interim government a tenuous seat of power in the war-scarred capital.
With the broader Islamic movement in disarray, an al Qaeda-affiliated group
called al-Shabab emerged and began to put down roots in the southern region
of Somalia. The US launched a series of airstrikes in order to disrupt the
group as rumors circulated that foreign jihadists were entering the country.
The African Union subsequently deployed 5,000 peacekeepers to Somalia in
order to bring stability to the country and contain al-Shabab. But the
peacekeeping force is understaffed and underequipped.
The violence is spreading outside of Somalia, as well. Al-Shabab claimed
responsibility for a suicide attack last month in Uganda that killed at
least 74 people as they watched the World Cup final. Ugandan soldiers make
up the bulk of the AU peacekeeping troops.
Somalia also lies in a strategic region vital to international trade. Oil
from the Persian Gulf is shipped through the Gulf of Aden on its way to the
Suez Canal and ultimately western markets. Piracy has become a growing
problem, with 116 successful or attempted hijackings of commercial ships in
2009.
EU mission could backfire
In this context, the European Union has an interest in establishing order in
Somalia. Some observers believe, however, that the mission to train Somali
soldiers will only fan the flames of instability and drive the Horn of
Africa into a deeper circle of violence.
"It's a dirty civil war that's being conducted there, with child soldiers
and many civilian victims, with no consideration for the law of war," said
Christoph Marischka, who works for the Militarization Information Center in
the southern Germany city of Tuebingen. "It's a fatal undertaking to
mobilize further soldiers there, whose concrete use we know nothing about."
The Somali army is not known for its sparkling human rights record, either.
The NGO Human Rights Watch has recorded many cases of transgression, such as
an incident in which Somali soldiers fired mortars at apartment buildings,
breaking the law of war which requires militaries to distinguish between
civilians and combatants. The army also recruits child soldiers, according
to a recent report submitted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Some policymakers are concerned that the EU training mission could undermine
its own goals by unknowingly supporting the Islamic militants it is designed
to contain.
"There is no functioning government in Somalia," said Ana Gomez, a
Portuguese representative in the EU Parliament. "That runs the risk that
these people [Somali soldiers] are trained and then support one of the
Islamic militias, al-Shabab for example."
In the past, Germany financed the training of Somali police. However, more
than 1,000 of them recently disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
Experts believe they are now rebels.
Author: Daniel Pelz / sk
Editor: Rob Mudge
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