Somali resistance opposes imperialism’s latest manoeuvres
In recent months events in Somalia have been going through some twists and turns. The US inspired brutal occupation of Somalia by Ethiopian troops has patently failed to deliver the country into US hegemony. For two years Somali resistance forces have resolutely fought the occupation by
Ethiopian troops and an African Union (AU) so-called peace keeping force. And
in the last week of January this year Ethiopia withdrew its troops without
leaving an imperialist-friendly government in control.
Indeed, the puppet so-called Transitional Federal
Government (TFG) and its parliament had been forced to carry out their
activities in Djibouti and have been shuffling themselves in a manner that
bears all the hallmarks of imperialist inspired manoeuvring, the objective
being a government that could pull the chestnuts out of the fire for
imperialism by causing splits in the resistance.
As a result, on 31 January this year Sheikh Sharif
Sheikh Ahmed was elected President of Somalia by a parliament, augmented by 200
more members, meeting in Djibouti. Sheikh Ahmed had been a leader of the
Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that brought stability to Somalia before the
Ethiopian invasion. He has, however, succumbed to manoeuvres in Djibouti, while other components of the ICU remained in Somalia engaging the invaders in armed
struggle.
Sheikh Ahmed has some allies within Somalia, but the signs are that the most resolute groups of the resistance are not inclined to now
roll over and allow US domination through the agency of renegades that were
once in the ICU with them.
Ethiopian invasion
Ethiopian troops had invaded Somalia in December
2006, instigated, aided and abetted by the US through a massive aerial and sea
bombardment, intelligence and ‘advisers’ on the ground. But the Ethiopian
troops struggled to maintain the foothold they achieved against resolute
resistance, eventually withdrawing in January 2009. A small number of
beleaguered AU forces from Uganda and Burundi, which also went in at the behest
of US imperialism, have been left to guard government installations and some
port areas.
US imperialism had organised the invasion by
Ethiopian troops to oust the government of the ICU, which was bringing
stability to the country after a long period of chaos. After President Siad
Barre was overthrown in 1991 there had been 15 years in which contending
warlords were in control in Somalia, with a series of 14 transitional
governments being largely ineffective in the chaotic circumstances that
prevailed. The ICU defeated the reign of the warlords, sidelined the TFG
established in 2004, and rose to power on a tide of popular support, driving
the last remnants of the warlords from Mogadishu and other southern cities on 5
June 2006. It quickly established a stable government controlling central and
southern Somalia and continued spreading peaceful conditions for the
population.
This, however, was not to the liking of US imperialism. We are repeatedly told that the US and its allies want stability in the world, and
that all their interventions are just efforts to help achieve that. What
imperialism really seeks is hegemony and it cares not one jot about instability
unless it threatens its interests. It was quite happy with the unstable, chaotic
situation under the warlords, who were amenable to imperialism, and anyway
could be manoeuvred against one another.
Statements that there has been no stable government
in Somalia since 1991 attempt to deny the fact that the ICU was creating a
stable independent unified country. The trouble for imperialism was that it was
not under its control. Such stability could not be tolerated, particularly in a
country that commands one of the longest and most strategically important
coastlines in Africa; hence the US/Ethiopian aggression.
The resistance grows
Following the invasion, some of the leadership of
the Islamic Courts Union, including its Chairman, Sheikh Ahmed, formed the
Alliance for the Liberation of Somalia in Asmara (ALS-A). Another group with
the same name was formed in Djibouti – ALS-D. They developed as an ‘opposition’
to the TFG.
The most effective opposition was provided by
strong components of the ICU, which remained in Somalia fighting the Ethiopian
troops and the so-called AU peace-keeping force. The bourgeois media reported
that the advancing Ethiopians had driven the resistance to the sea, where US warships blocked escape, and the Kenyan border, which had been closed. We were told the trapped
resistance fighters would be mopped up.
But the resistance was not mopped up and it grew in
strength. Al-Shabaab, a significant section of the ICU, emerged as its leading
force. It waged guerrilla struggle until 2008, and by August that year
al-Shabaab was able to capture the third largest city, Kismayo, and from then
began engaging Ethiopian troops in more conventional forms of warfare, steadily
gaining control of more and more territory
Faced with the military successes of the resistance
on the one hand, and the complete failure of the puppet government to gain any
support on the other, Ethiopia finally withdrew in the last week of January
2009.
Imperialist manoeuvring
Seeing its plans falling into ruins, imperialism
sought to revamp the TFG, which was completely isolated and ineffectual, by
splitting off elements from the ICU and drawing them in. It had backed a
Reconciliation and Unity conference in July 2007, but was unsuccessful in
putting pressure on the TFG to reconcile. The unpopular President, Abdullahi
Yusuf, an ex-warlord, refused entry to the ICU, whose Chairman, Sheikh Ahmed,
then announced that the ICU would not attend without a schedule for Ethiopian
troop withdrawal.
The successes of the resistance in 2008,
threatening to oust Ethiopia anyway, caused imperialism to increase its
pressure. No doubt at its behest the Ethiopian prime Minister, Meles Zenawi,
announced in August 2008 (at the time al-Shabaab took control of Kismayo) that
he was prepared to withdraw troops even if the government was not stable or
functioning (neither of which it had so far achieved nor looked like
achieving!). At the end of November 2008 the Ethiopian government sent a letter
to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, and the Chairman of the AU
Commission, saying that it would withdraw its troops from Somalia by the end of the year.
Abdullahi Yusuf, dependent on imperialist backing
but now a major stumbling block to imperialism’s new plans, conveniently
resigned on 29 December 2008. On the same day the US State Department issued a
press statement announcing that it would provide $5 million to support
formation of a joint security force in Somalia. It went on to say that the US expected the Somali parliament to act expeditiously and select a new President within 30 days
under the terms of the Transitional Federal Charter. The statement referred to
the Charter as a “United Nations backed framework for restoring peace and
good governance in Somalia” – in other words a device to establish US hegemony!
It seems that Sheikh Ahmed had been won round, and
he was elected President on 31 January 2009, immediately following Ethiopia’s withdrawal.
Resistance continues
Imperialism’s plans are, however, still in a
precarious state. While there are some allies of the renegades with fighting
capacity and some base in parts of Somalia, the resistance led by al-Shabaab
appears to have the support of the population. Within hours of Ethiopian troops
leaving, al-Shabaab was in control of the southern town of Baidoa, which had
been the stronghold of the TFG until it had fled to Djibouti, and seized the
warehouse where the ineffectual TFG parliament had held meetings. Resistance
fighters on the outskirts of Mogadishu were challenging TFG forces.
It has been claimed that Sheikh Ahmed went over to
the TFG in order to spare the Somali people further bloodshed by negotiating a
withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. But matters have moved on since Sheikh Ahmed’s
demands on behalf of the ICU in mid 2007, and it is now clear that it was the
military successes of the resistance that made Ethiopia’s position untenable.
The fighting should be over, but it is in fact forces supporting Sheikh Ahmed
and the pro-imperialist AU force that are prolonging it. They are attacking the
resistance led by al-Shabaab, which correctly identifies them as would-be
facilitators of imperialist domination of Somalia, and is continuing to resist.
On 19 March 2009 an audio-tape from Osama bin
Laden, entitled “Fight on, champions of Somalia”, called for the overthrow of
Sheikh Ahmed. Ken Menkhaus, a professor of political Science at Davidson University, suggests that this might bolster Sheikh Ahmed’s standing as “there’s
nothing that plays as poorly in Somalia as foreigners trying to advance their
own agenda in Somalia – telling them who they may or may not have as a leader”.
He added, “In some ways you could not script it any better for the new
government” (TIME, 20 March 2009). This stated advantage for
imperialism does raise suspicions about who actually made the tape!
Two points need to be made. First, it can hardly
have escaped the attention of the Somali people that, when it comes to “foreigners
trying to advance their own agenda”, US imperialism is by far the front
runner. It is not just a matter of an audio-tape, the resistance has fought US
soldiers off in the past and has been fighting its proxy troops for the last
two years – troops which have been meting out savage suffering to Somali
civilians in an attempt to not just tell, but impose, who they should have as a
leader.
Secondly, imperialism will no doubt seize on this
tape as a reason for branding all resisting Somalis as “terrorists”, as part of
a great “conspiracy”. Washington already has al-Shabaab on its list of
“terrorist organisations”. It should, however, not be a surprise that those in
various parts of the world who are subjected to the US conspiracy to dominate
everywhere it can should resist those attempts, and even express some mutual
support.
Imperialism for its part has no problems in
supporting those it regards as allies, and is prepared to be dishonest in how
it does so. Menkhaus and other advisers warn that the last thing Sheikh Sharif
Ahmed needs is overt Western backing. He said: “Diffuse any idea that Sharif’s
administration is a puppet by limiting yourself to quiet support. Don’t kill
this administration with kindness.”
It is, however, clear that imperialism is fully
expecting Sheikh Ahmed and his administration to achieve more subtly what the
Ethiopian troops could not do by brute force.
The Somali resistance is intelligent and has fought
bravely and successfully. Faced with current developments some parts of it may
waver while others remain strong, but Sheikh Ahmed’s willingness to serve
imperialism is clear and will become clearer, and the true interests of the
Somali people will be served by those who continue to steadfastly oppose and
resist all the efforts of imperialism, through whatever puppets, to subjugate
Somalia to its rapacious hegemony.
Victory to the
Somali resistance against imperialism and all its stooges!