By Ahmed Ibrahim
The failures or Iraq, Afghanistan and Israeli-Palestine conflicts highlighted the US disastrous foreign policy. The world media especially those in the West continuing to energise and sensationalise the US failure in these countries, but largely ignored other places like Sudan, Somalia, Central Africa and so on.
As I write this article, many are dying in Africa not just through hunger or diseases but also through civil wars as the result of US and other western countries double standards policies applied to Africa, such as Somalia, Congo, Chad and Central Africa and elsewhere in the continent.
US policy on Sudan, it is clear and it expects nothing than three slice of Sudan as Iraq, one for Arabs, one for Christians in south and one for Darfurians. The southern slice preserved for Christians because simply they are Christians and the one for Darfurians is all about oil.
To apply the double standard of US policy against Sudan, the US policy channelled through the UN to negotiate the Sudanese government to allow non African Union peacekeepers to be deployed in Darfur. Koffi Anan whose weaknesses failed the world body was quick to announce after short meeting with Sudanese foreign minister that Sudan accepted more UN peacekeepers, which was untrue. Let alone Sudanese people, would any functioning society accepts illegitimate occupation? The answer not needs to look beyond what is happening in Iraq.
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Controversial ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton who will soon be leaving his post
Photograph by : Associated Press/Dennis Cook
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Another u-turn emerged from UN last week when it adopted a draft lifting Somali arms embargo, prepared by US neo-con ambassador to UN John Bolton who is leaving the job by end of this year. Many African observers and experts in the region’s politics interpreted the UN resolution as another dangerous policy on Africa legitimising wars in Horn Africa.
The resolution gives the AU peacekeepers the green light to deploy African troops around Baidoa the temporary seat of the Somalian federal government, which its core backbone are the warlords. These warlords are those who for 16 terrorising their people and those financed by US under its so-called "war on terror" which is viewed as "war on Islam".
Given the bad record of US foreign policy, which since George W Bush came into the power deteriorated from bad to worse and is to blame mainly by Christian and Jews radicals in his administration, as well as his ill defined of world diplomacy coupled with hatred and supremacist attitudes.
Bolton's rush hour policy lifting the Somalian arms embargo, has neither been consulted with Somalian parties in the conflict, nor debated at the UN Security Council for its content and recommendations, because of Security Council itself became US negotiation chip to suppress and bully for the resolutions drafted by other countries. In other cases, the US bypasses the UN and acts pre-emptively, because it always questions the legitimacy of the world body.
The resolution ruled out the participation of frontline states, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti in the peacekeeping mission, but it does not call the removal of over 15,000 Ethiopian troops and 400 its intelligent officers currently in Somalia and further it did not spell out what action should be taken if the frontline states breach this resolution.
It appears that the Ethiopians interpreted the UN decision as green light to do whatever it desire to contain and confront any peace movements in Somalia. Forty eight hours after the UN decision the Somalian arch foe, the Ethiopians launched an attack against the military outpost belong to Union of Somali Islamic Courts (ICU) near Dinsor 40 Km from Baidoa the only city controlled by the Somalian federal government. The Ethiopian lost around 20 soldiers in that fight and returned to their bases near Baidoa.
Recently different has emerged between president Abdualhi Yusuf and the Ethiopians military commanders overseeing operations to curb the ICU, after the Ethiopian refused to allow the build-up of more Somalian troops and re-equipments. This division quickly alarmed the government in Addis Ababa and quick action was required from the Ethiopian Prime Minister Males Zinawi who was scheduled to visit Baidoa in this weekend for mediation between his commanders and president Yusuf.
As it has been previously mentioned in many articles, Ethiopian is fighting a war that is not theirs, but as US proxy against Islamic population in Horn Africa under Bush's "war on terror" banner. Ethiopia, which has good trading relationship with Muslim countries, will suffer the most if the war stretches from Mogadishu to Addis Ababa to Assab and it will pay a high price.
Nevertheless, the Bolton’s rush hour policy will not work since Somalia has no effective government that represents by its own people, rather an agent set up by EPRDF rag-tag. If the policy was only to protect the Yusuf government from its own people, then the US government need to relocate the Yusuf government to the shores of Somalia and the preferred location will be Addis Ababa or Washington. As US failed in many fronts in the world diplomacy, one must be sure that this one will also fail no matter whether it will be quickly materialised by the US itself or left for the Africans to deal with it.
Unless there is a genuine dialogue that pacifies to the road of a new unity government that represents all Somalian parties including the ICU and Somaliland and the removal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia, then anything else will be doomed to fail.
Ahmed Ibrahim
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