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Imperialist
hypocrisy and Ethiopian crimes in Ogaden |
Friday, December 28, 2007
By: Crystal Kim
There is nothing
humanitarian about imperialism
Democrat and Republican politicians continue
to claim that there is “genocide” in the
Darfur region of Sudan. They claim that U.S.
military intervention in Sudan is a
“humanitarian” necessity, not part of an
imperialist agenda to secure access to raw
materials and markets in the oil-rich
region. Is this true?
A look at the humanitarian crisis in
Ethiopia’s Somali region of Ogaden unveils
the true imperialist motives behind U.S.
intervention in Sudan and Africa in general
 Although
virtually unmentioned in the bourgeois
media, people in the Ogaden region are
suffering from a violent counter-insurgency
war and severe humanitarian crisis at the
hands of the pro-imperialist, puppet regime
of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
The roots of the current crisis in Ogaden
date back to imperialist land grabbing in
the late 19th and 20th century. During this
period, Ogaden was incorporated into,
partitioned from and then re-incorporated
into Ethiopia by European colonists.
While Ethiopian authorities control Ogaden,
the region is populated almost entirely by
ethnic Somali pastoralists who speak a
different language and have a different
culture than highland Ethiopians. The
Ogadeni people feel culturally and socially
closer to their kin in Somalia and northern
Kenya. Trade with Somalia is much greater
than trade with Ethiopia. According to the
BBC, the Somali shilling is the main
currency in some areas in the region.
Due to discrimination and economic hardships
that the people in Ogaden suffer at the
hands of the Ethiopian government, an
independence movement began to flourish. The
Ogaden National Liberation Front leads this
movement.
While historically ignored and neglected by
the Ethiopian government, the Zenawi regime
is now waging a violent and relentless war
in Ogaden to silence the independence
movement. This began after Zenawi realized
that the region may be sitting above
valuable oil deposits.
Humanitarian crisis
In June 2007, Ethiopian authorities imposed
a trade blockade on large parts of the
region, preventing commercial traffic and
emergency food aid from entering. The
blockade, coupled with droughts over the
past two years, has created a severe food
crisis in Ogaden. Thousands of residents
have fled to survive. Many people have been
reduced to eating grass.
A survey conducted by Save the Children U.K.
reported that 21 percent of children in
Ogaden are acutely malnourished, compared to
19 percent in parts of Somalia and 13
percent in Darfur. The United Nations
considers 15 percent the emergency
threshold.
Yet, Nur Abdi Mohammed, a spokesman for the
Zenawi government, claims, “There is no food
aid problem. There is no malnutrition
problem.”
The Ethiopian government also is forcefully
conscripting untrained civilians to fight in
Ogaden. Anybody who works for the
government—including doctors, teachers,
office clerks and employees of programs
financed by the World Bank and United
Nations—is in danger of conscription. Many
government workers have fled to neighboring
countries.
There are accounts of soldiers barging into
hospitals and threatening to jail health
workers unless they comply with
conscription. There are also accounts of
firing, jailing and torturing people who
refuse. The civilians are sent to fight in
Ogaden with little or no training. Some have
even had to buy their own rifles. (New York
Times, Dec. 14, 2007)
A Human Rights Watch report documented
dozens human rights violations by Ethiopian
troops, including gang rapes, burning
villages, confiscating livestock and forcing
civilian relocations. The report also
documents “demonstration killings,” such as
public hangings and beheadings, meant to
terrorize the people of Ogaden.
In response, government spokesman Mohammed
said, “There is not a single soldier who is
abusing human rights.”
Darfur vs. Ogaden: the hypocrisy of
imperialism
Why is there no “Save Ogaden” movement
propped up by the U.S. government? Why
aren’t U.S. politicians calling for military
intervention in Ethiopia?
The disparity in response between Darfur and
Ogaden is due to the fact that Darfur is
being used as a pretext to control oil-rich
Sudan. Sudan is led by a government
resisting imperialism. It has denounced the
U.S. occupation of Iraq, championed the
cause of the Palestinian people and
strengthened economic ties to China. The
U.S. government could not care less about
the actual humanitarian crisis facing the
Sudanese people.
Ethiopia’s Zenawi is the U.S. government’s
top ally in the Horn of Africa. He and his
followers—armed and funded by U.S.
imperialism and African client
states—overthrew the communist-inspired Derg
government in 1991.
As the U.S. government’s main stooge in this
geopolitically critical area, the Zenawi
government has been doing the bidding of
U.S. imperialism. The U.S. government funds
Zenawi’s brutal regime to the tune of $500
million each year.
In December 2006, Zenawi oversaw the
invasion of Somalia by the Ethiopian
military. It was a proxy invasion initiated,
directed and funded by the United States to
displace a popular and potentially
anti-imperialist government in formation.
Thousands of Ethiopian troops still occupy
Somalia.
When it comes to Ogaden, since the U.S.
government already exercises control over
Ethiopia, there is no need to feign concern
about the humanitarian crisis in the region.
In fact, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza
Rice stated on Ethiopian television that the
Bush administration was against a bill that
would restrict U.S. military assistance to
Ethiopia until it improved its human rights
record.
If Ogaden turns out to be sitting on top of
valuable oil deposits, it is in the
interests of U.S. imperialism for the
independence movement in the region to be
crushed and for Ogaden to remain under
Zenawi’s control.
The differential response by the U.S.
government to Darfur versus Ogaden reveals
the hypocrisy of U.S. imperialism. This
hypocrisy allows the U.S. government to
preach about “genocide” in Darfur, but then
but look away when Zenawi’s government
intentionally starves and pillages people in
Ogaden.
It is this same hypocrisy that demonizes
Robert Mugabe as a dictator for working to
free Zimbabwe from the iron grip of
imperialism, but turns a blind eye when the
Zenawi government kills hundreds of
anti-government protesters, as it did in
2005. There are endless examples of such
hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy is an inherent element of U.S.
imperialism because imperialism is motivated
by the unfettered flow of U.S. capital, not
solidarity and cooperation.
In Africa, there are humanitarian crises
across the continent due to imperialist
interventions and severe economic
underdevelopment. Centuries of colonialism
and neo-colonial rule have taken their toll
on Africa’s oppressed people. U.S.
imperialism and the bourgeois media shine a
light on select issues to facilitate the
continued neo-colonial subjugation of the
African continent.
Revolutionaries and progressive people
should not be fooled when U.S. politicians
talk about people’s needs in Africa.
Party for Socialism and Liberation
http://www.pslweb.org/ |
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