AFRICANEWS

Somalia

Yet another war in a troubled region

While attention is focused on the yet-to-be-decided war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a battalion of Ethiopian troops has invaded neighbouring Somalia. Ethiopia's reasons are unclear but they mark another spread of turmoil in the Horn of Africa.

When a contingent of about 300 Ethiopian troops backed by armoured personnel carriers and heavy artillery crossed the border into Southern Somalia in June, it was not yet another blatant abuse of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) Charter on non-interference in the internal affairs of a sister nation, but also marked the escalation of the turmoil in the Horn of Africa region. It is one area that has not known peace this decade.

Amidst protests from Hussein Aideed, the Somali warlord whose faction controls the Southern Gedo region currently bearing the brunt of the Ethiopian incursion, the Addis Ababa government refused to deny or admit that it's troops were inside Somali territory. While continuing with the advance, the Ethiopians gave military hardware to other Somali factions opposed to Aideed. These include the Rahawein Resistance Army (RRA). Eritrea, which is at war with Ethiopia, is said to be arming other factions in North Mogadishu, notably the Somali National Front of warlord Ali Mahdi.

By 15 July, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) correspondent in Mogadishu reported that the Ethiopian force had swelled to 15,000 troops. And refugees fleeing the impending fighting talked of Ethiopian planes flying directly from Ethiopia. This was at the same time as Aideed, and who had moved to the Somali capital Mogadishu was swearing that he was going to militarily deal with the Ethiopian aggression. At the same time Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi was offering to broker a peace deal to end the conflict diplomatically.

Despite all these moves, the Ethiopian government has not come out explicitly as to why its troops are in Somalia. But speculation is rife that it is out to come to pre-empt an armed insurrection in Ethiopia by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a rebel group, opposed to the Addis Ababa government. Since it started operating from Somalia the OLF has been receiving support from Aideed's faction. The rebel group is composed of the Oromo, an ethnic group in Ethiopia and who have battled successive Addis Ababa governments for greater autonomy and freedom. With an estimated population of 25 million, the Oromo live in 11 of Ethiopia's 14 provinces and form one of the country's largest minorities.

The OLF first waged a protracted war against the Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime until when it was toppled in 1991. After the demise of this Marxist government, the OLF together with other rebel groups entered into a coalition government headed by Meles Zenawi of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) as the Prime Minister. But the OLF quit the coalition the following year citing harassment and electoral manipulation by the TPLF. A purge of Ethnic Oromos followed, with many being imprisoned without trial, tortured, killed or forced into exile. Since then, Oromo nationalism, both within and outside Ethiopia, has been rising. Oromo exiles, through newsletters and other media have waged an awareness campaign on their plight, alerting the world to the gross human rights violation they suffer.

Ironically, the outside world, especially the West, has not come out strongly to condemn these rights abuses. It seems, pundits argue that the West has fallen victim to Ethiopian propaganda, which paints the OLF as an Islamic fundamentalist group. Other neighbouring countries like Kenya, Uganda, Egypt and Eritrea have similarly put the "Islamic fundamentalist" factor before human rights and have tacitly refrained from condemning not only the abuses but also the incursion into Somali territory. This intolerance has also been witnessed in neighbouring Kenya which has an ethnic Oromo population, which Ethiopia believes is sympathetic to the OLF. Attacks on OLF sympathisers in the Moyale area bordering Ethiopia are said to have increased slightly since 1993. In 1997, a young Kenya Oromo lawyer Hussein Sura was murdered in Nairobi by agents believed to be in the payroll of the Ethiopian government.

Although the OLF denies that it is an Islamic fundamentalist movement, observers argue that the association with Aideed who enjoys the support of Islamic fundamentalist individuals, and governments in the Middle East and elsewhere is an indicator of Islamic fundamentalism in its ranks. Their evidence is based on last year's coup in the OLF, which did away with the old guard who had come to be viewed as liberal for their advocacy for negotiations with Addis Ababa. In came a new breed of young radicals with Islamist leanings and who called for the creation of an independent homeland, "Oromia" through the gun. It is developments like these, which made Ethiopia, move some of its troops in the border area with Somalia last year before invading the latter. All these were signs that Addis Ababa would deal firmly with anyone perceived to be offering the OLF help.

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