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By: Mohamed
Abbas
Dec 27, 2007
The sudden and
apparently unexpected capture of Mogadishu
by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)
forces has angered every Somali who has a
sense of dignity. On the other hand, the
fall of Mogadishu brought a sense of
relaxation only to Somalia warlords (or
shall we say: Somali traitors) and they
supporters who betrayed their nation.
The fall of
Mogadishu marks a black day in Somali
history. Somalia would be hollow and
worthless without Mogadishu which is the
heart of the nation. Mogadishu is where
every Somali feels that he or she is
superior to anyone. It is the city that
refused to accept the tribal allegiance and
labeled itself as the loving home for
every Somali. History tells us that
Mogadishu is an accommodating city should
its inhabitants behave as city-dwellers not
as mooryaan.
If you are a
Somali by race, either hailing from the
republic or beyond, Mogadishu is the only
city that can carry all Somalis together on
her back, and what a caring back Mogadishu
to offer!
But after
watching the Somalia capital falling in the
hands of the invading Ethiopian troops, it
is no surprise, therefore, that sings of
anger, sorrows and frustrations were felt
equally in Somalia, Djibouti, the Ogaden
region, as well as the Northern Frontier
District (NFD), the Somali-inhabited region
in Kenya. There are news that fighters are
still coming from Somaliland, Puntland,
Baidoa, Kismaayo, NFD, and from the Ogaden
region to participate the liberation of
Mogadishu.
In my opinion
which I share with many Somalis, Mogadishu
is not like any other Somali city. It is not
just the capital of the nation, it is more
than that. Mogadishu is our safety net. It
is the calm centre around which all Somali
people swirl and which is the most precious
part of our sovereignty. And because of
this, the capture of Mogadishu by the
Ethiopian forces was something too
unbearable to contemplate.
If we look
back, we can all remember that since the
collapse of the Somali government in 1991,
bloodthirsty warlords began vying for
control, and as a result of that, Somalia
collapsed into war and anarchy, and since
then, the country has been falling into
pieces with nothing good ever being said
about it.
And because of
a bunch of warlords, the Somali nation had
suffered a cataclysmic disaster. The
clan-warfare led ultimately to the collapse
of all institutions and the destruction of
the country’s infrastructure. Thousands were
killed and wounded, a million or so –
including myself – were driven into exile
against their will.
In such
climate and in the vacuum of a failed state,
Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) appeared on
the screen. And after getting a financial
support from Mogadishu business community as
well as moral support from the society and
some influential tribe leaders, UIC has
formed well trained and disciplined young
fighters capable of defeating Mogadishu’s
notorious warlords.
In just a
short period of time, the UIC fighters have
captured Mogadishu and most of the central
and southern part of Somalia after defeating
all Somali warlords in a humiliating way.
They reopened both the port and the airport
and restored law and order in a city
bedeviled by wars in more than a decade. .
Praising
the victory of the Islamic Courts, Saverio
Bertolino, a U.N. official said in an
interview with the Newsweek magazine in July
2006: “In 15 years,
no one was able to do what the Islamic
Courts did in 15 days”.
But the
miracle victory of the Islamic Courts and
the defeat of the warlords gave Addis Ababa
regime the jitters and put the US policy in
East Africa in ruins.
Today, the war
that is raging in Mogadishu is not just a
recent conflict between the Ethiopian troops
and UIC fighters, its roots go deeper.
Since the
failed US military invasion in Somalia in
1993, and the growing influence of the
Islamic groups in Somalia in many aspects,
Somalia began to take a centre stage in
Washington’s policy in East Africa.
Ethiopian secret agents as well as CIA
operatives in the horn of Africa have been
trying for many years to kill or capture
suspected Somali Islamists through their
puppets, the Somali warlords. But in most
cases, they couldn’t succeed. And worse came
to worse when their puppets were severely
defeated and the UIC fighters took over the
Somalia capital in June 2006. As a result of
this, Washington decided not to risk its
elite marines again back to Mogadishu to
avoid another Black Hawk Down scenario.
Describing the
dilemma that faced the Bush administration
after UIC fighters captured Mogadishu, Ken
Menkhaus, associate professor of political
science and Somalia expert at Davidson
College, North Carolina said:
"This is worse
than the worst-case scenarios,
the exact
opposite of what the US government
strategy, if
there was one, would have wanted,"
After this
unexpected scenario, the US needed someone
who can do the job. And obviously, Ethiopia
stood among the crowd as the only and the
preferred suitable candidate for that job,
the invasion of Somalia.
Taking
advantages of the so-called “the war on
terror” and being the most reliable US agent
in the region, Addis Ababa regime agreed to
risk its troops in Somalia for two main
reasons: firstly, to fulfill US interest in
Somalia, and secondly, to settle some old
scores with Somalia, its most feared enemy.
With that in
mind, and on behalf of the United States on
the pretext of cleansing Islamic
fundamentalism from the horn of Africa, the
Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)
regime in Addis Ababa invaded Somalia with
military, financial and political support
from America and a nod of approval from the
African Union.
Shame on the
African Union and its Secretary General,
shame on the Arab League, shame on the
members of the Organization of Islamic
Conference, shame on all these leagues of
which Somalia is a member. Indeed, it is a
worthless membership to hold.
As though they
are giving their end-year extravaganza,
nearly 50,000 Ethiopian troops backed by US
air and sea powers have captured Mogadishu
on Thursday, 28th December
2006. Somali warlords and their militia
– in a government uniform – were acting only
as “interpreters & guides” for the invading
forces. They were informing the Ethiopian
troops the names of Somali villages and
which town is more pro-Islamist than other.
The moment the
UIC fighters left the city, lawlessness has
returned to Mogadishu and freelance militia
started looting and killing civilians and
immediately, the situation started
descending back into total anarchy.
But who would
have thought that one day Mogadishu will be
captured by Ethiopian troops, let alone they
will shit inside its mosques?! The answer
is: “this thought is something that never
crossed our mind.” And this brings me to
raise this question:
Who is
responsible that Mogadishu fell in the hands
of the Somali enemy?
Sometimes it
is easy to raise a question than to find the
answer. But this question must be raised and
it deserves to be answered.
Although some
of the inherent ills that have caused the
fall of Mogadishu have had their genesis
primarily in Addis Ababa and Washington, but
the fact remains that the fall of Mogadishu
is – first and foremost – one of its
people’s making.
I place
the responsibility for the fall of Mogadishu
firmly on the Somalis themselves, especially
Mogadishu warlords and their supporters.
I would like to
remind all Somalis that the traitors within
are more dangerous than the declared enemy.
The fall of
Mogadishu has left a hole in my heart and
the hearts of all true Somalis, but the
wound had began to heal now after we watch
young Somali fighters dragging the dead
bodies of the Ethiopian soldiers in the
streets of Mogadishu. Somalis should do
everything to chase TPLF forces and their
puppets out of Somalia. They should use all
their available means to achieve this end.
And although
the fall of Mogadishu marks a black day in
Somali history, but I am confident that the
city of Mogadishu which succeeded in
humiliating the American elite forces on
October 1993, is also more capable in
defeating the un-mourned Ethiopian soldiers.
Mohamed Abbas
Kismaayo91@hotmail.com
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