A Matter of Perspective: Playing the Terrorist Card
There is no contention that if there is a Continent that had gone through so much, it is our beloved Africa. It is mind boggling, as Bishop Tutu would say, that so many have suffered so much for so little for simply having had the misfortune of being born in this cursed land.
Generations were brutalized under the yoke of Colonialism. After having giving all they had to once and for all bury foreign hegemony and dominance, generations had hoped that at last they can see the light at the end to the tunnel.
And then came the human scum. The older generation was mostly remnants of the Colonial apparatus. But the younger ones were products of the very wars of liberation that the people have supported whole heartedly against the new tyrants because no one ever believed that he can be brutalized by his own kin and kith.
It is in this context that one had to see and understand of what happened to us. Over fifty years after the liberation of our Continent, the new breed of butchers are now becoming even more sophisticated in their methods, in their alliances and their source of sustenance.
Go down memory lane and take a brief look, for example at say the case of the late Equatorial Guinea President Francesco Macias Nguema. During his reign this tyrant had become so attuned to killing his county men that at the height of his blood feast he used to execute people in batches of one hundred fifty each in the stadium to the tune of Mary Hopkins Those Were the Days my Friend
He was overthrown by his nephew the current dictator, Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Nguema is a thief. To day all of the estimated oil revenue of some $ 350. Mill. pounds go into his private coffers. Nothing trickles to the people. The capital city Malibu has no sewage system. No transport or running water. Once asked what he does with the money he replied that is a state secrete. His son Teodorin lives in the most expensive hotel in Paris and has a collection of some 50 of the top selling cars for his leisure.
But that is not surprising. Take the Republic of Angola. After the defeat of the reactionary Savimbi the current rulers lead by Jose Eduardo dos Santos have stolen all the diamond and oil money and stashed it in the Virgin Islands. The joke is that the islanders are scared the island may one day sink in the ocean through sheer weight of the loot. The Angolan people have today acquired a new skill. They have perfected the art of feeding out of dumpster near luxury hotels, were the rich and the mighty rub shoulders and spend their time discussing the next loot.
The tragedy of our Continent is that only those who have brutalized the people seem to always be rewarded for their brutality. Take the infamous Foday Sankoh whose guerillas the (The Revolutionary United Front-RUF) Boy! Arent we all revolutionaries! had severed so many limbs of innocent civilians (do you want a long sleeve or a short sleeve was the favorite question posed for their victims) that after the peace accord brokered by the UN Sankoh was made vice president and not a single one of his followers was arraigned or brought to justice. His militia, who had brutalized so many of their country men are now living luxuriously from the Government coffers while their victims with no leg or limb have been left to fend for themselves.
Yes Charles Taylor had been caged (after almost getting off with he active connivance of the other thief Obasanjo Olesegun of Nigeria) But how many would learn form this and mend their ways. O I could go on and we can talk about Mugabe or his close friend Mengistu or we can talk about the Lords Resistance Army or we can talk about Darfur and about al Beshir but what would be the point?
In our globalized world justice has become highly selective. Yes Milosevic (his crimes would pale compared to what has been committed against us by our leaders) was taken to The Hague like Charles Tailor and Saddam (after having been made Hitler junior) got vigilante justice. But the real criminals are still alive and roaming. They are scared to be sure, but they know how to play the Western card.
Let us see our region, our beloved Horn for example. The people of Somalia for the last fifteen years have suffered like most of the people of the Continent. Fifteen years of warfare, dispossession and deprivation that had turned them into a country of refugees.
A transitional Government made up of the collection of the usual bandits was set up in Kenya. But the so called transitional Government was so devoid of internal support that as the Kenyan journalist Salim Lone says Ethiopia had to send 15000 troops in violation of the UN arms embargo to support it in the small enclave of Baidoa.
Then came the United Islamic Courts (UIC). Here was a group that were able to transcend the divisions of clan and ethnicity and in a very short time able to bring peace and unite the Somali people because they based their struggle not on large scale warfare but on the establishment of law and order. And there was hope in the region.
But then two of Africas biggest criminals (who have been the cause of the death of over a million people in the Horn) started their meddling.
In his highly readable article R.T. Nayelor writes The US based on the emerging fiasco in Afghanistan and the inevitable drainage of forces Iraq would entail, it had enough senses to let to wait until proxy forces could do as much of the work, face as much of the danger and share as much of the resulting opprobrium as possible
Isaias had previously tried the terrorism card and everything else to ingratiate himself to the powers that be too. But when tiny Djibouti was chosen as the command post he started his ravings and his meddling. But he was totally ignored and marginalized and into the void stepped Meles.
Meles the famous dresser of the TPLF. He was desperate to avoid the war crimes court at The Hague that could make him the next target. With the ascendancy of the UIC and the US administration wanting to show something for its debacle in Iraq, to his great delight, then came General John Abzaid fresh out of Iraq in his shining armor and with the required instructions from Dubya.
Meles listened carefully. He had nothing to loose and a new and longer leash on life. When the UIC consolidate their power and decided to extend their lule on all corners of their borders it was the perfect gambit for him.
As Nayler again writes Ethiopia devoid of a sea outlet has been covertly eying the small enclave of Puntland but for which it needed Washingtons permission. Behind the Puntland secessionists could be seen Al-Itihhad Al Isalmia and behind Al-Itihhad could be seen the guiding hand of Usama. Puntland with its well known global communications and transportation infrastructure was destined to be the New Afghanistan from which Al Qua'eda would operate. Annexation of Puntland by Ethiopia was thwarted by the internal coup that occurred in2002 that renounced its autonomous status and joined Somalia proper so to smooth matters, we are told Al Quaeda was selling Qaat to finance a terrorist act in a Western Capital.
The decaying dictator got a last gasp in life. A new lease to live another dictatorial day. One day more, one year more out of prison. No one was going to haul him to The Hague for the massacre of thousands for Ethiopians in the streets of Addis.
Trainers and war equipment started pouring down from the stockpiles of tiny Djibouti. And Puntland was promised as a reward if he would only sacrifice a few thousand Ethiopians for the greater good of destroying Islamists bent on thwarting the machinations of western hegemony. It was a Godsend!!
With the blessings of his uncle the Abun Paulos. (Remember the scavenger who has refused to return the money he stole from the Diaspora). The Crusader went south. The war was a forgone conclusion. Who would stand the might of a US proxy war? A handful ragtag militia who barely know how to fire a gun? Never in the history of Africa has one country invaded another with such impunity.
Following the invasion of a sovereign African country, contrary to the charter of the African Union, the US sent its mighty Indian Ocean Fleet to hermetically seal the sea lanes least the Islamists live to fight another day.
And then came the missile barrage. As Alexander Cockburn in his weekly column writes A make or break speech by a beleaguered American president is usually preceded by a demonstration of American might somewhere on the planet and the run up to Bushs speech. On Wednesday was no exception. The AC-130 US gunship that massacred a convoy of fleeing Islamists on Somalias southern border apparently along with dozens of nomads their families and livestock was deployed on its mission on Sunday to make timely newspaper headlines indicative of Bushs determination to strike at terror wherever it lurks. Moral to nomads: when the US president schedules a speech dont herd dont go to wedding; parties head for the nearest cave.
In the process, the hopes and dreams of the Somali people have been shattered. The region has been forever destabilized and the so called charter of the AU has been for ever made worthless but above all the enmity of the Somali people for what they perceive to be the Ethiopian Christian invaders will haunt us for a long time to come.
For Meles the short term benefits are quite huge. After all, thanks to Mengistu Haile Mariam, the much vaunted fighting spirit of the Ethiopian people have been emasculated beyond belief and his dictatorship has become total.
He will be patted on the head, probably by Blaire. Remember, Blair is now on a civilizing mission. He wants to teach Moslems everywhere how to worship their God. His old comrade and his later day nemesis Isaias who has been trice humbled by him will be drinking himself to death. No one will remember the difference in spelling between Badme and Baidoa. What more can you wish for. Isnt this what the Italians call La Dolce Vita?
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