Wednesday, May 17, 2006
News RhetIraq: US Support of Somali Warlords
Source:The Washington Post via The Sydney Morning Herald
Quotes: From article titled, "US accused of backing Somali warlords"
MORE than a decade after US troops withdrew from Somalia following a disastrous military intervention, there are claims that America is secretly supporting secular warlords who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu.
The clashes last week and at the weekend were among the most violent in Mogadishu since the end of the US intervention in 1994, and left 150 dead and hundreds more wounded. Leaders of the interim government blamed US support of the militias for provoking the attacks.
A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, had said the US would "work with responsible individuals … in fighting terror. It's a real concern - terror taking root in the Horn of Africa. We don't want to see another safe haven for terrorists created."
Most of the country is in anarchy, ruled by a patchwork of competing warlords and the capital is too dangerous for even Somalia's acting Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, to visit.
Leaders of the transitional government have warned the US that working with the warlords is shortsighted and dangerous. "We would prefer that the US work with the transitional government and not with criminals," Mr Gedi said. "This is a dangerous game. Somalia is not a stable place and we want the US in Somalia. But in a more constructive way. Clearly we have a common objective to stabilise Somalia, but the US is using the wrong channels."
Many of the warlords have their own agendas, Somali officials said, and some reportedly fought against the US in 1993 during street battles that culminated in an attack that downed two Black Hawk helicopters and left 18 Army Rangers dead.
"The US Government funded the warlords in the recent battle in Mogadishu, there is no doubt about that," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said from Baidoa. "This co-operation … only fuels further civil war."
Some unidentified US officials admitted they are talking to these leaders "to prevent people with suspected ties to al-Qaeda from being given safe haven in the lawless country".
"The US relies on buying intelligence from warlords and other participants in the Somali conflict, and hoping that the strongest of the warlords can snatch a live suspect or two if the intelligence identifies their whereabouts," said John Prendergast, the director for African affairs in the Clinton administration and now a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group. "This strategy might reduce the short-term threat of another terrorist attack in East Africa, but in the long term the conditions which allow terrorist cells to take hold along the Indian Ocean coastline go unaddressed. We ignore these conditions at our peril."
A report this month to the United Nations Security Council from the body's monitoring group on Somalia said it was investigating an unnamed country's secret support for an anti-terrorism alliance, in apparent violation of a UN arms embargo.
Quotes: From article titled, "US accused of backing Somali warlords"
MORE than a decade after US troops withdrew from Somalia following a disastrous military intervention, there are claims that America is secretly supporting secular warlords who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu.
The clashes last week and at the weekend were among the most violent in Mogadishu since the end of the US intervention in 1994, and left 150 dead and hundreds more wounded. Leaders of the interim government blamed US support of the militias for provoking the attacks.
A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, had said the US would "work with responsible individuals … in fighting terror. It's a real concern - terror taking root in the Horn of Africa. We don't want to see another safe haven for terrorists created."
Most of the country is in anarchy, ruled by a patchwork of competing warlords and the capital is too dangerous for even Somalia's acting Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, to visit.
Leaders of the transitional government have warned the US that working with the warlords is shortsighted and dangerous. "We would prefer that the US work with the transitional government and not with criminals," Mr Gedi said. "This is a dangerous game. Somalia is not a stable place and we want the US in Somalia. But in a more constructive way. Clearly we have a common objective to stabilise Somalia, but the US is using the wrong channels."
Many of the warlords have their own agendas, Somali officials said, and some reportedly fought against the US in 1993 during street battles that culminated in an attack that downed two Black Hawk helicopters and left 18 Army Rangers dead.
"The US Government funded the warlords in the recent battle in Mogadishu, there is no doubt about that," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said from Baidoa. "This co-operation … only fuels further civil war."
Some unidentified US officials admitted they are talking to these leaders "to prevent people with suspected ties to al-Qaeda from being given safe haven in the lawless country".
"The US relies on buying intelligence from warlords and other participants in the Somali conflict, and hoping that the strongest of the warlords can snatch a live suspect or two if the intelligence identifies their whereabouts," said John Prendergast, the director for African affairs in the Clinton administration and now a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group. "This strategy might reduce the short-term threat of another terrorist attack in East Africa, but in the long term the conditions which allow terrorist cells to take hold along the Indian Ocean coastline go unaddressed. We ignore these conditions at our peril."
A report this month to the United Nations Security Council from the body's monitoring group on Somalia said it was investigating an unnamed country's secret support for an anti-terrorism alliance, in apparent violation of a UN arms embargo.
