Can the “Designation” of Al-Shabaab achieve its objectives?

by Ahmed Omar
Thursday, March 27, 2008

Many Somalis believe that there is a need to support anybody who has a desire to fight against the Tigrian occupation forces, an Occupation force that has managed to slaughter 1’000s of people and made millions more homeless and destitute.  To succeed the designation needs enough Somalis to accept and support its objectives.  I will explain in this article why the designation will not and cannot achieve its objectives.

The designation comes at a time when more and more Somalis are realising the disastrous consequences of the American supported Tigrian occupation on their homeland and believe there is a need for a complete change of policy and an emphasis to undo the occupation and its effects.   The designation represents the opposite and more of the same failed political strategy. That strategy has led to the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world where millions of people are displaced and are now dying from diseases, starvation, lack of shelter, clean water and sanitation.  The designation will fail like the raft of other policies prescribed by the state department in the past.  It will reinforce to Somalis the sense of injustice and lack of balance that prevails in the policies of the state department.   The unconditional support for example Jendayi Fraser has given to the Tigrian Regime in Addis Ababa that terrorises the Ethiopian people, abuses their human rights in a manner reminiscent of the DERG Junta already polarised the opinion of many in the Horn of Africa.   Somalis in particular feel there is no alternative to fighting for their liberty. The alternative is perpetual subjugation identical to the current situation in the Ogaden, in which the Tigrian Regime practices Savage barbarism over the people there.   It hangs young men from trees, buries them alive in mass graves, Gang rapes girls as young as 11 years old for mere suspicion, burns 1000s of villages, and engineers man made starvation by confiscating life stock and stopping trade.   The designation of Al-shabaab will be seen in this context and in line with the spirit of Aiding and abetting Melez’s Domination over the Somali Republic.  Many Somalis see the conflict as one where Melez is seeking Domination of the Somali Republic and they are determined to stop him. He attempted to do it by proxies. His proxies were the despised Warlords who killed, terrorised and violated the Somali people for the last two decades, many of whom were armed by the Melez Regime despite the UN having Arms Embargo on Somalia since 1992.  The warlords have failed to provide any effective leadership to the Somali people and the people were collectively ready to put them out of Business.    The Melez domination project was stopped on its tracks in 2006 when the warlords were forced out from Mogadishu.  The only option left for him was full-fledged Military invasion of the Somali Republic.  This was facilitated by the TFG and blessed by the State Department.  

The designation will be seen by many Somalis as just another unjust administrative instrument with no moral or legal legitimacy and designed to shackle us for the domination of the unrepresentative Ethnic Regime that dominates and oppresses the Ethiopian people.    The designation may in fact bestow legitimacy on the Al-shabaab in a manner not de-similar to the conflict that occurred in earlier 2006 between the Warlords and the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu. In that conflict the warlords were widely seen as doing the bidding of the CIA and the Melez Regime and the Islamic Courts innocent honest endogenous people under attack from stooges backed by foreign enemies.   It has transformed them from a fragmented clan based religious entities presiding over marriage ceremonies and solving pity local disputes with no meaningful public support, to a national political and military force that controlled much of southern and central Somalia.

Somalis across the world in the Diaspora and in the business community will support the struggle for National Liberation regardless of the designation. The business community have seen their merchandise looted, their property destroyed, their markets closed by the occupation forces and economic activity ground to a halt. Inflation has risen to 700% a year since the invasion in January 2007 never seen for years in this failed state. Ordinary people are paying 10 times more in March 2008 for basic commodities than they did in January 2007.    The security situation has worsened immensely; even compared to the bad old days of the warlords.   The Somali people blame the invasion of the Minority Regime in Ethiopia for their apoclyptic suffering.  For them the designation will be irrelevant and they will whole-heartedly support the struggle for national liberation, which they feel, was nearly achieved in 2006 but was robbed of them by the invasion.

  The huge Somali Diaspora living across the globe fully understands the objectives of the designation, it is perhaps designed to divide us, cause suspicion and finger pointing among us and divert our energy and attention away from the liberation of our country or to sabotage the possibility of an all inclusive reconciliation process.   They understand the risks associated with the support they may give to the liberation struggle, but they want to share and must share the burden of liberation of the motherland.  In doing so; they will keep in mind the evil that has touched their brothers and sisters. The mutilated bodies of men and sometimes women put outside Tigrian Military compounds in Mogadishu, the indiscriminate shelling of neighbourhoods not even involved in the fighting, full of the most vulnerable people of Society; resulting in the mass slaughter of the innocent and the displaced millions who are defecating in the open unable to go back to their homes.

The Diaspora finds this vicious brutality unacceptable and they will not enjoy superb civilisations in London, Minneapolis, Ottawa and watch their homeland in possession of this utterly despicable tyranny subjecting colonial humiliation, human rights abuses and economic exploitation.  The Diaspora will find the designation of Al-shabaab therefore by the state Department uncalled for while the same institution applauds and encourages this tyrannical regime to continue its merciless atrocities and ignores the plight of the Somali people. They will find ways of subverting its effectiveness and support whoever is willing and able to stand up for the liberty and sovereign rights of the people of the Somali Republic.