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You can't use kerosene to put off
Sparks |
By:
Kallacha Dubbi
May 12, 2007
I read an article
by Peter Pham
which appeared in World Defense Review,
under Strategic Interests, entitled
"Additional Sparks Fly in the Horn of
Africa", also distributed by the Sudan
Tribune. I too see sparks dangerously flying
all over east Africa, but I don't see them
the way Mr. Pham saw. His solutions are
precariously short-sited despite they appear
under "strategic interest", and inescapably
one-sided. For this and more reasons, I saw
his very paper as a piece of another ember,
a blatant disfavor for a region that
deserves more and better.
For Mr. Pham's record, I shall start with a
disclaimer that I am not a member of al-Itihad
or the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
In fact, I am not a Somali by nationality or
ethnicity, not even a Moslem. This, I hope
helps the reader's confidence including Mr.
Pham's in giving me the benefit of the
doubt, especially since I am a native of
east Africa and a country Mr. Pham may only
have visited as a guest of honor.
Mr. Pham claims that the Somali Islamists
were more of a threat than some of his
colleagues averred because, in their
previous incarnation as al-Itihaad al-Islamiya
("Islamic Union") - they had "enjoyed
longstanding ties with dissident groups
which had carried out terrorist and other
violent actions within Ethiopia." For this
reasons, Mr. Pham believes the US State
Department should classify the Somali
Islamists, ONLF in particular, as a
terrorist group because, "the ONLF seeks to
split their region from the rest of Ethiopia
with the goal of joining it to an eventual
'Greater Somalia', which proponents envision
embracing all their ethno-linguistic kinfolk
in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya as well as
the former Somalia and the Republic of
Somaliland." So, based on Mr. Pham's logic,
the US must declare all opposition political
groups in friendly regimes as terrorists
even if these regimes are so tyrannical that
the people do not see any other hope for
achieving their just quest for freedom than
armed struggle. This logic is troublesome,
it refutes all history books. In fact, it is
very alarming to read defense or policy
analyses of this sort from a source of this
caliber.
Mr. Pham seems deeply incensed because the
ONLF was not listed as a terrorist group by
the US Secretary of State in its 2005 or
2006 Country Reports on Terrorism, not
mentioned in the list of forty-two groups
formally designated as being a foreign
terrorist organization, not in the summary
of terrorist activities in Ethiopia, not
even among the forty-two "other groups of
concern". This is as at least pleasing as
Mr. Pham's parochial view is displeasing.
The State Department is obviously smarter
than an individual lobbyist wants it to be.
Mr. Pham admits that an ONLF representative
in North America attempted to contact him a
while ago, called him and sent him a fax,
"with unexpected politeness" and informed
him that he begged to differ with his
interpretation if not his facts. The ONLF
representative apparently wrote him that
"while his group was engaged in an armed
struggle to free their nation from
occupation, it did not utilize terror
against any entity except bona fide military
targets or the repressive apparatus of the
(Ethiopian) regime." In a surprising lack of
interest for knowledge and a depressing
predisposition for journalistic or scholarly
curiosity, Mr. Pham refuses to have any
communication with the person even from the
safety of his north American office or a
Washington DC confinement, - to listen to
someone who openly approaches him from an
organization Mr. Pham admits "does not pose
a direct threat to the United States". And
yet Mr. Pham suggests that the US State
Department should join him in declaring the
ONLF guilty as charged, without talking to
the charged who willing places himself in
the witness stand ready to talk, solely
through his tourist testimony gathered from
a single source - the Ethiopian state-owned
mass media which is known for incriminating
innocent bystanders. If he is so unwilling
to even listen, how can he go so extreme in
his analyses and assertions? It sure is
discerning.
Ethiopia has been in a virtual civil war for
almost a century and the various ethnic
groups are still fighting for equality and
self determination. The now dominating group
from the Tigray ethnic group has attempted
to classify all other ethnic groups that
have raised arms to fight the Tigrean
domination of the Ethiopian political
panorama as terrorist groups. On the other
hand, the same regime has outlawed all
opposition forces and hundreds of activists
from the OLF, Kinigit, etc who are facing
trial for treason, simply because the ruling
Tigrean party lost elections. By denying the
Ogaden Somalis the right to struggle for
equality and for their basic human rights,
Mr. Pham is indirectly telling us that these
freedom fighters are terrorists because they
do not accept a Tigrean domination.
Nonsense!
Mr. Pham seems motivated to contribute this
version of his policy analyses by a recent
event in Ogaden - on April 24, the ONLF
launched a massive attack on an oilfield in
Obala inside Ethiopia. This is acknowledged
by the ONLF shortly after the attack. The
ONLF communiqu' reads that it has stated on
numerous occasions that it will not allow
the mineral resources in Ogaden to be
exploited by "this regime or any firm that
it enters into an illegal contract with so
long as the people of Ogaden are denied
their rights to self-determination." Any
genuine democrat would appreciate this; it
effectively stops corruption, obstructs
dictatorship, and attempts to transfer
ownership of natural resources to the
people. There is nothing wrong with
expecting a Tigrean who comes thousands of
miles South to Ogaden with employees from
China to ask for permission of the Ogadenis
before digging a big cavity in the grazing
grounds of their ancestors or in their
playgrounds; it would be right to make some
consultation with the local people - both
morally and legally.
Mr. Pham on the other hand audaciously
writes "despite this open admission of its
role in the most spectacular attack within
Ethiopia since the fall of the Marxist
dictatorship in 1991 - to say nothing of the
toll of thousands of lives which ONLF
ambushes and raids against Ethiopian
military and civilians have exacted since
1984 - the Ogadeni militants amazingly do
not figure in official U.S. terror lists."
This argument is so bizarre that it leads to
classifying all the population of Ethiopia,
except those who are party to the domination
of the TPLF, as terrorists.
The question is, should an armed struggle
against viciously dictatorial regimes such
as that of Ethiopia be considered terror?
Should the State Department categorically
and thoughtlessly classify all armed
struggles as terror? How would this new and
bizarre definition reconcile the US's
strategic interest with the legit wish of
the people in Africa to live in peace as
equals? How would any liberation movement be
tolerated, and what would happen to history?
Should we now redefine even the Second World
War as terror against Hitler? Mr. Pham can
have a favorable view of the Ethiopian
regime. But to extend this view to
categorically classifying struggles against
a dictatorial regime as terrorism simply is
unjust and it is not a serious analyses.
Mr. Pham seems concerned of being perceived
"as exclusively concerned with groups which
might impact us while ignoring the real
challenges faced by our allies." The ally in
this case is the Ethiopian regime. For Mr.
Pham, the blood of the thousands of Oromos,
Amharas, Somalis, Sidamas, etc., often
including young school kids, is less
relevant to the real challenge of the his
dictator allies. He either naively of
shrewdly sees siding with a brutal dictator
and alienating the entire population as
beneficial to the US interest. I do not.
I agree, "nothing prevents international
terrorist groups from making alliances of
convenience with non-international terrorist
groups." But I know no "non-international
terrorist group" more rampant than the Meles'
regime. The people, whether Oromos or
Somalis . all they want is equality and self
determination. Suffocating such a demand is
more of a terror than fighting such a
genuine demand. To know the brutality of
Meles, one only needs to read reports of
Africa Watch, Amnesty International, US
country report, Oromia Support Group, etc.
Finally, the bombing of two hotels and the
attempted assassination of a cabinet
minister in Addis Ababa, etc., are terrorist
actions that should be condemned. I do not
know who perpetuated them. I thrust the ONLF
no less than I trust EPRDF or TPLF. In fact,
I thrust the ONLG better because the TPLF
outlawed the Macca Tulama Association for
"storing bombs" in its office. Macca Tulama
is a civic organization that I know for sure
didn't store even enough pens and papers in
its open door offices, leave alone
explosives. The ONLF attack on the Chinese
explorers is reminder of how dry the
savannas of the Horn are, and how easily
they can catch fire. The flying embers, from
Mr. Pham or anyone else do not help diffuse
the ethnic tension which is mostly fueled by
the dominating group, the Tigreans in this
case. Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group
could join in throwing embers. But Africans
are smart enough to know that terrorism or
religious extremism will not promote
equality and democracy. They are also aware
that not all smart and crafty writers have
Africa's best interests in their minds,
especially in the lobbyist-infested politics
of DC. Ironically, poor countries like
Ethiopia can still afford hiring lobbyists
for millions of dollars. Short-sited
interest should not condemn east Africa to
political turbulence more fertile to
lobbyism than terrorism. This underscores
the need for the US to forge strong ties
with local representatives of the people as
recently initiated in Iraq, and bypass
despots like Meles. To achieve these
strategic objectives, the US needs to
support popular resistances as a long-term
useful strategy. Why support a regime built
from straws, whose days are numbered, and
has no mass base at all?
The
author is based in the USA. He can be
reached at
kallachadubbi@yahoo.com |
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