Somalia (Continuación)

MundoÁfrica

My colleague Rosemary Righter wrote last week that the defeat of Somalia’s Islamic courts by Ethiopian forces was the “first piece of potentially good news in two devastating decades”.

As one of the few journalists who has visited Mogadishu recently, I beg to differ. The good news came in June. That is when the courts routed the warlords who had turned Somalia into the world’s most anarchic state during a 15-year civil war that left a million dead.

I am no apologist for the courts. Their leadership included extremists with dangerous intentions and connections. But for six months they achieved the near-impossible feat of restoring order to a country that appeared ungovernable.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Somalia's internationally recognized government pulled off a stunning military victory over its Islamist rivals, taking control of the capital, Mogadishu, and the key port city of Kismayo last week. This may appear to bode well for the containment of Islamism on the Horn of Africa. But unless America plays a constructive role in Somalia’s next stage, the conflict could become a regional war and a new field of jihad.

The success of the Transitional Federal Government and its current prevalence were made possible entirely through the help of troops from neighboring Ethiopia, many of them trained and equipped by the United States.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

The peremptory ousting of the Islamic courts by Ethiopian forces is Somalia’s first piece of potentially good news in two devastating decades. Ethiopia acted out of national interest, to deny Islamic extremists a base in the troubled Horn of Africa from which they could disrupt the balance in Ethiopia itself, where almost equal-sized Christian and Muslim communities currently coexist in reasonable harmony.

Somalis, who fought two wars with Ethiopia over the Ogaden desert, will not readily see their old enemy as a saviour. Yet by acting when the UN and the African Union could come up with nothing but paper plans, the Ethiopians have given this wretched failed state a chance.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Undeterred by the horrors and disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, the Bush administration has opened another battlefront in the Muslim world. With US backing, Ethiopian troops have invaded Somalia in an illegal war of aggression.But this brazen US-sponsored bid to topple the popular Islamists who had brought Somalia its first peace and security in 16 years has already begun to backfire. Looting has forced the transitional government to declare a state of emergency. Clan warlords, who had terrorised Somalia until they were driven out by the Islamists this year, have begun carving up the city once again. And the African Union, which helped create the transitional government, has called for the immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from the country, as did Kenya, a close US and Ethiopian ally.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

Watching Somalia right now is like standing on a beach, waiting for a category five hurricane to hit. The looming cataclysm threatens to spark a regional war, suck in east African and Arab actors, and create a dangerous new theatre in the polarising, global contest between western power and Islamist jihadism. Somalia has the potential to make Darfur look like a little local difficulty.The cocked trigger for all-out conflict is a deadline set by the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), a movement of growing military and popular strength that controls the capital, Mogadishu, and most of southern Somalia. If Ethiopia does not abandon the rump, western-backed government that holds the central town of Baidoa and withdraw its troops by Tuesday, the Islamists say they will attack.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Por Borja Bergareche, abogado y master en Relaciones Internacionales por la universidad de Columbia (EL CORREO DIGITAL, 14/06/06):

El guión se repite una y otra vez: se resquebraja la estructura del Estado, el caos y la violencia se apoderan del día a día en forma de clanes y facciones rivales, Estados Unidos interviene del lado equivocado y, mientras la atención mundial se centra en otros menesteres, la población local busca refugio y orden en el Islam. Lejos de los titulares de la prensa diaria española, Somalia se ha convertido ahora en el último episodio del auge global del islamismo y del suicidio autoinducido de los valores liberales y democráticos en cada vez más regiones del planeta.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

Por Borja Bergareche, abogado y Master en Relaciones Internacionales por la Universidad de Columbia (ABC, 10/06/06):

EL guión se repite una y otra vez: se resquebraja la estructura del Estado, el caos y la violencia se apoderan del día a día en forma de clanes y facciones rivales, Estados Unidos interviene del lado equivocado y, mientras la atención mundial se centra en otros menesteres, la población local busca refugio y orden en el islam. Lejos de los titulares de la prensa diaria española, Somalia se ha convertido ahora en el último episodio del auge global del islamismo y del suicidio autoinducido de los valores liberales y democráticos en cada vez más regiones del planeta.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional

By John Prendergast, a senior adviser to the International Crisis Group. He worked for the National Security Council during the Clinton administration (THE WASHINGTON POST,07/06/06):

It was before "Black Hawk Down," before Somalia became the only country in the world without a government, that I took my first trip there. It changed my life. This was in the mid-1980s, when the United States was underwriting a warlord dictator in support of our Cold War interests, at the clear expense of basic human rights. As a young, wide-eyed activist-in-training, I couldn't accept the idea that my government would use defenseless Somali civilians as pawns on its strategic chessboard -- in a strategy that ultimately produced only state collapse, civil war and famine.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional

By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 23/05/06):

Hilary Benn's foray into war-torn, drought-plagued Somalia last week was a brave attempt to focus attention on the land the world forgot. Few politicians have ventured there since the central government collapsed in 1991 and warlords took over. Visiting a camp for displaced persons, the international development secretary pledged an additional £8m in humanitarian and educational assistance.

But Mr Benn was peddling more than handouts, homilies and good intentions. His additional offer of £1.5m "to support the functioning of the parliament and ministers" represented a clear British commitment to Somalia's political rehabilitation. It was the sort of initiative expected of a foreign secretary.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional,

By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 03/03/06):

Somalia could become the next "war on terror" battleground as the US zeroes in on al-Qaida and Islamist groups reportedly trying to exploit a power vacuum in the world's most anarchic state. Looking on helplessly are two million Somalis facing drought and famine, and aid agencies hampered by warlords, kidnappings and piracy. The World Food Programme says a dire humanitarian situation in southern Somalia has been worsened by hijackings of relief vessels - but alternative land routes had raised "similar logistical and security challenges". An American employee of Unicef was kidnapped in the south on Wednesday.…  Seguir leyendo »