U.S. Funds Another African Civil War
In Ethiopia, Fear and Cries of Army Brutality - New York Times
This story outlines how the Ethiopian government's army is abusing civilians in Ethiopia and in Somalia, and how this administration is trying to almost double Ethiopia's non-humanitarian aide - which means money for weapons, people! And note that the U.S. would not label the Ethiopian rebels who oppose the government as "terrorists" up until now. What changed? The Ethiopian rebels attacked and killed Chinese and Ethiopian employees of a Chinese oil well, of course! See, we don't want China getting Africa's oil, but we especially don't want Africans getting the idea they can push any foreign oil companies out of their countries. Therefore, the U.S. State Department is "considering" making the Ethiopian rebels against the government that we fund to commit crimes against humanity "terrorists". After you read it, you might want to write your Representatives and Senators (use link on the sidebar!) and tell them: I do not want you to provide any funds at all to the Ethiopian government until they permit human rights and aide workers and news reporters into areas where they are fighting rebels. The Ethiopian government arrested five NYT reporters for trying to report this story, releasing them without charges after five days. Stop all non-humanitarian funding for Ethiopia and certainly do not increase their funding until we have full access to the details of how the Ethiopian government treats its citizens and neighbors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/world/africa/18ethiopia.html?_r=1&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all"
2 comments:
What do you know about the claims that Somalia now has a group of youth mujahedeen leading the attack against the interim government?
A Jan. 07 article in Asia Times http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/IA13Aa02.html points up the complexity of tribal relationships in Somalia. The Islamic Courts, which seem to have had a pretty moderate agenda (though to us bans on music and dress are intolerable), or at least didn't have a terrorist agenda, are still supported by Eritrea and rich Saudis and Gulf individuals, the warlord Yusuf by Egypt and Yemen and the U.S. and Ethiopia. The sheer magnitude of forces arrayed against the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) almost guaranteed it would be defended by Islamic guerrillas who, if not organized by al Qaeda, certainly vulnerable to its propaganda. The goal of the U.S., in the opinion of the AI writer Pepe Escobar, is to forment a civil war to keep the region destabilized, thus easily gain access to the entire Horn of Africa and its resources. Of course AI takes the China perspective, which is yet another superpower seeking control in the region. There's only one article I found and it was in Voice of America, that only focuses on the al Qaeda influence on the Mujahadeen, and does not mention U.S. support of the Mujahadeen up until this latest development. See e.g. http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1954 "U.S.-Made Mess in Somalia" of April 07.
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