ERITREA: US SCAPEGOAT FOR SOMALIA DEBACLE
July 6, 2012
Yesterday the U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets of two
Eritrean government officials ostensibly because "The United States
is determined to target those who are responsible for the ongoing
bloodshed and instability in Somalia," said Treasury's Office of
Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Director Adam J. Szubin.
This begs the question: who is responsible for the bloodshed and
instability in Somalia?
Somalia has been without a government since 1991. It experienced a
brief semblance of law and order in 2006 under the Union of Islamic
Courts, who opened the airport and seaport for the first time in 15
years. On December 24, 2006 - that's right, Christmas Eve - in direct
violation of U.N. resolutions, Ethiopian soldiers supported by U.S.
aircrafts, special-forces and navy gunships launched a full scale
invasion of Somalia. Like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya the invasion
led to unprecedented levels "bloodshed and instability" and
radicalization.
So why is the Treasury blacklisting two Eritrean officials? Szubin
explains that "By designating these individuals today we are taking
action to support our partner governments in East Africa and the
African Union Mission in Somalia in their efforts to dismantle al-
Shabaab."
These "partner governments" are primarily Ethiopia and Djibouti. Both
have U.S. drone bases which were used in the invasion of Somalia and
have been repeatedly used in a U.S. assassination program in Somalia
and Yemen. Djibouti also has the largest U.S. base in Africa which
operates as the de facto new U.S. African Command (aka Africom).
Ethiopia and Djibouti also both started border wars with Eritrea. To
support these "partner governments," the U.S. slammed through U.N.
sanction resolution 1907 against Eritrea on the eve of Christmas Eve,
December 23, 2009, for, you got it, causing instability in Somalia.
The sanctions authorized the U.N. to list Eritrean officials that
violate the weapons ban on Somalia and to freeze their assets. To
date, the U.N. has not listed any Eritrean officials. U.N. reports
have since found evidence of Eritrea's involvement in Somalia to be
inconclusive, negligible, insignificant, and/or ceasing before 1907
was passed. Even the treasury department doesn't claim the two
officials did anything improper after 1907 was passed in 2009. Thus,
the continuing "bloodshed and instability" is due to the "partner
governments" who have recently stepped up their occupation.
Dumisani Kumalo, Chairman of the U.N. Security Council's Somalia
sanctions committee, had found that "Eighty percent of ammunition
available at the Somali arms markets was supplied by TFG and Ethiopia
troops": and that he views "continued presence of Ethiopian troops on
Somali territory as a violation of the arms embargo as well as
Ethiopia's arming of "friendly clans." Yet no Ethiopians have been
blacklisted by the Treasury or the U.N.
Unable to get any Eritreans on the U.N. list, in 2010 the U.S.
Treasury unilaterally blacklisted Yemane Gebreab, a lead Eritrean
diplomat, for involvement in Somalia. No explanation was given. All
that may have been frozen was a few hundred dollars from an old
student account he used while studying in the U.S. decades ago.
Yesterday Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., stated that
"The sanctioning of two Eritrean military officials underscores the
ongoing concern about Eritrea's violations of Security Council
resolutions."
The U.S. is currently pressuring the U.N., on behalf of their "East
African partners" to target Eritreans. According to InnerCityPress,
on June 15, 2012, in an unprecedented step, the U.S. and Ethiopia
were able to nix a UN report on Eritrea's compliance with the
sanctions resolutions, pulling it straight off of the official UN ODS
document website. This was done secretly without the consultation of
other member countries in direct violation of U.N. procedural rules.
The U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea will issue a new
report in the coming days. Past reports have accused Eritrea of
having thousands of troops in Somalia and flying plane loads of
weapons into Somalia, claims which have since proven to be false. It
is anticipated that the new report will focus almost exclusively on
Eritrea's support of Ethiopian rebels and other internal issues, not
the peace and security of Somalia.
Last year Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi openly declared his
country would support Eritrean rebels to overthrow the government in
Eritrea. The announcement was followed by multiple press conferences
in Addis Ababa describing rebel strikes in Eritrea. Earlier this
year, the Ethiopian military announced that it had attacked three
targets in Eritrea itself. Eritrea wrote the UN calling for an
investigation. The letter was ignored and no investigation ensued.
And so it goes at the U.N.
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Received on Fri Jul 06 2012 - 21:21:24 EDT
