[NYTr] Another Fine Mess: China Hand on Somalia

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

China Matters - Nov 21, 2007
http://chinamatters.blogspot.com/2007/11/another-fine-mess.html


Another Fine Mess

by China Hand

posted this on American Footprints on November 13

Maybe one reason the Bush administration is unable to develop a
coherent foreign policy is because it’s stuck in reactive mode,
flinching as fresh catastrophes come down the pipe and scrambling to
come up with new excuses and rationales for initiatives that—had they
worked out—would have been tucked away in the “case-closed” file of
foreign policy successes.

Pakistan looks like it might turn into a colossal botch. Certainly, our
stated objective for shoehorning Benazir Bhutto back into Pakistan—to
broaden the popular base for Musharraf’s regime—isn’t working out. In
fact, the exact opposite is occurring.

In the same week, Georgia—home of the Rose Revolution we helped
foment—declared its own state of emergency.

And now Somalia.

McClatchy’s Shashank Bengali lays it out:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/21405.html

"Last December, Ethiopian forces supported by the American military
invaded neighboring Somalia to oust a hard-line Islamist regime that
U.S. officials claimed was linked to al Qaida. Since then, the
Ethiopians have faced stubborn resistance from fighters loyal to the
Islamists, who've proved adept at ambushes and remote-controlled
bombings.

"Ethiopia's campaign has become an open-ended military intervention
besieged by a stubborn insurgency, and Ethiopians recently responded by
sending in a surge of reinforcement troops. Human rights groups charge
that the Ethiopian forces are carelessly killing civilians. ..."


Today’s word is probably not “Quagmire”; it’s “Meltdown”.

More than 114,000 people fled their homes over the past two weeks,
according to United Nations estimates released on Friday. Humanitarian
officials said that many more fled over the weekend after Islamists
ambushed a convoy of Ethiopian troops and dragged the dead body of a
soldier through the streets, triggering a spasm of Ethiopian reprisal
attacks.

"Somalia's worst displacement ever took place in the last few days,"
said an official with a Western aid agency in Mogadishu who asked not
to be identified for security reasons. "Nearly four districts of the
city have been totally cleared out."

Some 850,000 Somalis — perhaps one in six — are displaced within their
own country, the most in years. Fewer than 10 percent of them are
receiving any humanitarian aid, and most live in desperate conditions
in makeshift refugee encampments scattered around Mogadishu's outskirts.

The latest turmoil is producing a ghastly conclusion to an apocalyptic
year, even for Somalia, which hasn't had a functioning government in 16
years. ... What to do, what to do?

Well, we can certainly point fingers at our proxies the Ethiopians, the
hapless African Union, and that ineffectual but convenient punching
bag, the U.N.:

"The Ethiopians are becoming impatient, meaning that they now retaliate
indiscriminately," said the Western aid official. "That, of course,
leads to more resistance."

The African Union has deployed a vanguard force of 1,600 peacekeepers,
but they've been confined to Mogadishu's airport and seaport. No
reinforcements appear to be forthcoming, and last week U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said the situation was too chaotic to
send in U.N. forces.

For those who have short memories and don’t recall the Somalia invasion
as a particularly ham-fisted piece of American adventurism, see
Democracy Now! and the WSWS website).
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/28/1450201%20
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/soma-d28.shtml

It would be a bit too much to expect the Bush administration to enforce
some accountability on the U.S. dingbats who thought it was a good idea
to orchestrate an invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia.

Maybe Jendayi Frazier of the State Department, point person for our
Somalia policy--who is also blamed for our inept Sudan policy--should
answer a question or two.

At least that’s what a highly indignant Sophia Tesfamariam thinks. In
February 2007 she wrote in American Chronicle:

[UK Channel 4 News’ Jon] Snow told his listeners “the blueprint for a
very American supported Ethiopian invasion of Somalia was hatched” at
the US Embassy in Addis Ababa...[Snow] referred to a “UN record of a
meeting” that took place sometime in June 2006 and was attended by a US
Commander of the Fleet off Somalia, Rear Admiral Richard Hunt,
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi E. Frazier
and an unnamed UN official. According to the report, the attendees
discussed possible scenarios in Somalia and how to deal with them:
•“…The worst case scenario would result from a total control by the UIC
[United Islamic Courts of Somalia] over Somalia…the US would not allow
it…” •In the event of a rapid Ethiopian in and out intervention “…the
US would rally with Ethiopia if the ‘Jihadists’ took over…” •Jendayi
Frazier is quoted as saying, “It would be a mistake for the
international community to condemn such an invasion” •An unnamed UN
official is quoted as saying, “any Ethiopian action in Somalia would
have Washington’s blessing”

Tesfamariam concludes:

[T]he UIC was never a threat to international peace and security, but
rather, the threat we now face is the result of the crisis in Somalia
that Meles Zenawi [of Ethiopia] and Jendayi E. Frazier have created and
are advancing in the Horn of Africa.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=20409

Accountability shmacountability. That’s why we have proxies and cutouts.

Instead let’s assert our impotence (and lack of culpability) by
engaging in some anguished handwringing from the sidelines (McClatchy
again):

Bush administration envoys have called for Somalia's transitional
government to make peace with its opponents, but the Pentagon, which
has long worried about Somalia becoming a haven for terrorists,
supports Ethiopia's presence in the country.

Remind me. Who made this mess?