By Omar Salad
I. COMMISION OF GENOCIDE AND WAR
CRIMES BY ETHIOPIAN TROOPS
According to local and international as well as reliable knowledgeable inside sources 266 and 991 civilians were killed and wounded respectively in Mogadishu and outside of it from 23/12/2006 to 28/3/2007 by the Ethiopian troops and allied clannish militia of the ‘TFG president’. In addition, during the four days from 29 March to 1 April 2007 1,086 and 4,500 civilians were killed and wounded respectively by the Ethiopian army’s indiscriminate carpet bombardments (of all sorts of ground artillery plus air to ground missiles) and hail of bullets and of those allied clannish militia of the ‘TFG president’ in Mogadishu (according to report issued by the Body-counting and Burial Committee in Mogadishu). According to the report many families were killed in cold blood (eg. 26 members of extended family were dead in a house). After that in the first two weeks of April to-date 18 civilians were killed and 62 wounded in
Part of the displaced vulnerable population fled to both adjacent and distant regions and part of them moved to the outskirts of Mogadishu especially the countryside between the city and Afgooye town (30 kms.) squatting on open ground and those fortunately enough took shelter under trees by the dozen. 90% of them are women, children and frail people all being made destitute after terrorised and their basic livelihoods and properties have been deliberately destroyed. They have no food, water, medicines, doctors and nurses, and shelter!? Marauding armed thieves and thugs assault on these helpless internally displaced people (IDP) robbing them of the scanty belongings (money, food, etc), raping women and girls, or killing or harming many. These IDPs who travel to other regions are ambushed on the way by armed bandits who rob these hopeless refugees or even kill some of them. Daily you hear these sad stories against the displaced. Because of such catastrophic disruption of livelihood and outbreak of epidemic killer diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, etc. the IDPs in and outskirts of
The epidemic diseases have been carried to and affected other regions which also lack healthcare. Many hundreds died or die on regular basis for these diseases and famine especially children, pregnant women and other vulnerable people. Apart from
This collective punishment of carpet bombing on civilian residential areas causing mass genocide and destruction of means of livelihood and properties of hundreds of thousands of people, clan cleansing, kidnapping and deporting innocent Somali civilians to Ethiopia and taking away many others whose whereabouts are not known, disruption of local welfare and relief networks which used to assist the poor and people afflicted by calamity, and denial of international humanitarian and relief aid from the outside world by barring international NGOs and governments from coming in Somalia to help the perishing displaced population and other needy population remaining in Mogadishu and the country as a whole, clearly and undoubtedly constitute grave crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity which must be recorded and referred to the international law and institutions for investigation and action while Ethiopia’s aggression and illegal invasion and occupation of Somalia is itself, in the first place, be seen and dealt with by international community and legal bodies as punishable act of crime against peace in international law.
International Community Quilt by Complicity
Unfortunately, the wider international community especially the US, UN, EU, AU, IGAD, Arab League, etc. are equally or even quilt by complicity as they unconditionally and unqualifiedly provide political, military and material support to the ‘TFG’ that commits such crimes alongside with Ethiopians while ignoring or failing to acknowledge such horrendous crimes either for reasons of conspiracy against Somalia (weaved by Ethiopia and Kenya and backed by US) or neglect of responsibility by the international bodies and states of which some so vociferously talk about protection of human rights elsewhere in the world. The ‘TFG president’, on /7/1/2007 went on record to say ‘The US has right to bombard terrorist suspects who attacked its embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania’ when the US AC130 strategic bomber planes were bombing on positions in the hinterland of Lower Jubba Region of Somalia while there was absolutely no Somali who ever harmed any American interest let alone those victimised villagers and pastoralists. On 21/3/2007 the ‘TFG president’ Abdullahi Yusuf also went on record to say in a reply to an interviewer ‘Any place from which a bullet is fired (at us) will be bombarded regardless of whoever is there.’ Once more in the first week of March 2007 the ‘president’ burst out with a tribal battle cry in which he said ‘the Hawiye clan prepared and unified all their forces against us (his clan) and what is happening is like the 1991 (referring to when the civil war was in full swing) and Mogadishu will belong to the clan which is the strongest.’
The UN which should have been neutral, unlike other interested parties, is taking its share of these crimes by complicity of either unconditionally supporting the Ethiopian-controlled TFG or condoning the illegal Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Somalia which means utter failure of its international obligations of defending world peace, security and protecting human rights to seriously consider and take steps about this illegal and aggressive invasion in contravention of the international law and specifically the UN Security Council Resolution 1725 (2006) and order Ethiopia to get out of Somalia. In contrast, in
Only the EU Office in
II. WHAT THE INTERNATIONAL LAW
SAYS ABOUT THESE CRIMES
Although I am not a lawyer I like to invoke here some provisions of the international law which relate to crimes such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity committed by the Ethiopian forces occupying Somalia and their client ‘TFG leadership’, primarily ‘president’ Abdullahi Yusuf and ‘prime minister’ Ali Mohamed Gedi who invited the Ethiopian invasion and occupation and who on daily basis take part in these crimes against the Somali people.
A)Genocide
The articles II and III of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide lay down legal provision of the crime of genocide and other crimes.
Article II defines two elements of the crime of genocide:
1) the mental, element, meaning the ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such’, and
2) the physical element which includes five acts described in sections a, b, c, d, and e . A crime must include both elements to be called ‘genocide’ and in relation to these two elements by committing:
a) killing members of the group, b) causing serious bodily and mental harm to members of the group, c)deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, d)imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group, and e)forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article III describes five punishable forms of the crime of genocide such as: a) genocide, b) conspiracy to commit genocide, c) direct and public incitement to commit genocide; d) attempt to commit genocide; and e) complicity in genocide.’
B) Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes
and Crimes Against Humanity
The International Criminal Court defines crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity as follows:-
1) Crimes Against Peace
Crimes against peace include: ‘planning, preparation, invitation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing’
2) War Crimes
War crimes are: ‘violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.’
3) Crimes Against Humanity
The crimes against humanity are: ‘murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war, or persecution on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether, or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.’
If one scrutinises the criminal acts the Ethiopian occupation forces and their client ‘TFG president’ Abdullahi Yusuf and ‘prime minister’ Ali Mohamed Gedi and their aides committed (and still commit) in Somalia especially in Mogadishu and compare these with the above-listed sets of crimes, one cannot fail to realise that they are guilt of these crimes and must be brought before an international tribunal for justice to be done for the thousands of Somali civilians intentionally exterminated, inflicted crippling injuries and maiming; displacement and starvation of hundreds of thousands and mass destruction of their means of livelihood and properties, or those other innocent civilians murdered or kidnapped and deported from their country. Even the 2-3,000 killed and 3-4,000 wounded from the fighters of the Somali Islamic Courts Union (UIC) by the invading Ethiopian army, as boastfully declared by the Ethiopian prime in early January 2006 after the UIC forces retreated, can be counted under the category of war crimes or genocide because they were exterminated in their land by a foreign country which illegally and aggressively invaded their country. They are also killed for their own religious belief which is also an element of genocide. This unprovoked illegal invasion is itself a crime against peace.
III. REAPPRAISAL OF THE OCCUPATION FORCES AND ‘TFG’
Unless the international community rethinks of and changes its heavily impartial counterproductive position of the unconditional support to ‘TFG’, which is nothing more than a rubberstamp and spokesmen for Ethiopia, and support or tacit consent of the brutal Ethiopian occupation of Somalia, and addresses the early end of this occupation, these crimes will continue to rise. Because the majority of the Somalis especially those in the southern and central regions and in Mogadishu will not surrender to the blatantly partial and revenge-driven policy of the ‘TFG leadership’ and Ethiopians who demand of unilateral disarmament and humiliating surrender from the people of Mogadishu and adjacent regions. Therefore, before it is too late to avoid more crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the international community primarily the US, UN, AU, and Arab League must reappraise their unconditional total support of the hated and impotent ‘TFG’ and support or condoning the revenge seeking and anti-Somali sovereignty Ethiopian occupation which is the main source of the ongoing tension and conflict. The misconceived and insincere idea that early withdrawal of Ethiopian troops will bring about vacuum of security and chaos as if the current indiscriminate destructive and genocidal acts mentioned above by
Therefore, only early complete withdrawal of the Ethiopian troops could usher in peace and security in
The ‘TFG president’ is an stooge of
‘TFG’- an Instruct Designed to
Invade and Occupation
The TFG has neither been an independent or functioning government. It is instruct designed to invade and occupy
IV. THE TALK ABOUT NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
Given the 15 years of misuse and distortion by warlords and their Ethiopian and Kenyan handlers, the phrase of national reconciliation has been discredited and its mention immediately reminds the Somali people something empty, bogus and deception. So, the talk about national reconciliation congress by the ‘TFG president and prime minister’ under the tutelage of the Ethiopian occupying authority is seen by most Somalis especially the people in the battled and besieged Mogadishu as another shame exercise intended to short-change and quell boiling internal public opposition and for external consumption. Every Somali knows well the national reconciliation congress announced by the ‘president’ will be a shame one in which mainly his supporters and bribed non-political elements will be gathered to get a sort of ‘mandate and legitimacy’ for the above described ‘TFG’ emptied of its form, and content and mission with funds from the international community.
In addition to that, it is impossible to hold such congress while the heavily biased and brutal Ethiopian occupation continues and seeks to disarm and defeat large sections of the Somali people in favour of other sections and for its own political motives. One evidence is that the proposed ‘national reconciliation congress’ has been postponed to the middle of May 2007 without any certainty that it will take place in that time.
The alternative to that illusionary ‘national reconciliation congress’ is early and complete withdrawal of the Ethiopian troops and to start fresh consultation between the ‘TFG’ and the various opposition groups and stakeholders under the auspices of international neutral body like the UN with changed attitude and role or a commission from neutral countries (as facilitators not managers) acceptable to all the sides. Given that, a genuine national reconciliation conference can be organised with an agenda, safe venue and known radical outcome discussed and agreed upon by all the sides concerned, and participated in by:-
a) the opposition MPs who disagreed with the ‘TFG’ and Ethiopian invasion and occupation;
b) elected delegates from clans which belief that their representatives in the ‘TFG’ were either dismissed, demoted, or denied of role, or betrayed their clans,
c) moderate leaders of the Islamic Courts,
d) civil society leaders inside the country,
e) recognised and titled traditional leaders,
f) representatives from the Somali Diaspora, and
g) etc.
V. CONCLUSION
A brief conclusion drawn from the above explored and explained issues can logically be the following:-
3. The international community especially the international humanitarian agencies and rich countries must urgently recognise, acknowledge and respond to the current humanitarian disaster that has unfolded and still unfolding in Mogadishu and outside it regarding the displaced more than 200,000 IDPs, the entire besieged population of Mogadishu, and the over one million people in all the regions already reported by the UN OCHA and UNCHR who suffer from Acute Food and livelihood crisis especially at this time of season when the spring rains began and over mass IDPs are strewn on open ground camps without protection from the weather elements and without food, water, medicines and doctors and nurses while epidemic disease like cholera, diarrhoea, etc, are taking high toll. In this respect the international community especially the
2. The already mentioned and below listed horrendous crimes undoubtedly committed by the Ethiopian Occupation troops and the ‘TFG leadership’ primarily the ‘president and the prime minister’ in
a) crimes against peace (peace and order created by the Islamic courts was attacked and destroyed)
b) crimes of genocide,
b) war crimes, and
c) crimes against humanity.
3. The international community must rethink and reappraise its partial and unconditional support to the ‘TFG’ which is no longer the one established in Nairobi in 2004 – it has been deliberately and systematically emptied of its form, content and purpose and that is why the majority of the people vehemently oppose it.
4. The Ethiopian troops occupation are not only committing crimes but they are completely biased to the ‘TFG’ and are the major source of tension, conflict and mistrust in Somalia today.
5.
By Omar Salad – Bsc
E-mail: [email protected]
[1] Byline: