Government leaders charge U.S. with backing Mogadishu warlords
BY EDMUND SANDERS
Los Angeles Times
NAIROBI, Kenya — The United States is facing growing criticism that it is secretly aiding one side behind the deadly clashes raging in Mogadishu, thwarting Somalia’s attempts to restore peace and order.
Fierce gun battles on the streets of Somalia’s capital have killed nearly 140 over the past two weeks. An additional 80 died in two fights in February and March, started when an alliance of Mogadishu warlords linked to the U.S. began battling Islamic leaders who were attempting to assert their authority in the capital.
Somalia plunged into anarchy in 1991 after the fall of the Mohamed Siad Barre regime. Following the deaths of 18 American servicemen in Mogadishu in the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” fiasco, the U.S. withdrew its troops from the Horn of Africa country and has shied away from a hands-on diplomatic role.
But now leaders of a transitional Somalia government are blaming the U.S. for sparking what has become the deadliest outbreak of violence in Somalia in years. Somali government officials accuse U.S. intelligence agencies of secretly funding the Mogadishu warlords as part of anti-terrorism efforts.
“The warlords in Mogadishu are telling us that they were encouraged by the U.S. to fight the Islamists,” said Asha Ahmed Abdalla, a parliament member representing the north.
Transitional President Abdullahi Yusuf and Transitional Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi are calling upon the U.S. to stop supporting the warlords and instead work with the official government, which was formed by an international forum in 2004.
“The U.S. strategy on terror is to use its own channels,” Gedi said. “But it’s only through the (transitional Somali) government that we can address the issue of terrorism.”
John Prendergast, senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, an independent policy group based in Washington, D.C., said the U.S. policy is focusing too heavily on covert, military intervention, rather than attempting to restore Somalia’s economic and political infrastructure.
“This is Cold War-style diplomacy at its worst,” he said. “It just ends up throwing gasoline on the fire,” Prendergast said.
U.S. officials refused to confirm or deny any role in supporting the warlords, but reaffirmed the Bush administration’s commitment to forging ties with “responsible” partners willing to assist in combating terrorism in Somalia.
U.S. State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday that the U.S. is “working across a spectrum of Somalis to make sure that Somalia isn’t a safe haven for terrorism. We have a real interest in counterterrorism efforts in Somalia.”
The warlords, calling themselves the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, deny U.S. assistance.
But U.N. officials said earlier this month that they are looking into reports that an unnamed country has violated the U.N. arms embargo in Somalia by providing support to the warlord alliance. U.N. Ambassador John Bolton denied that the U.S. violated the embargo.
Analysts say U.S. support for selective warlords in Somalia has been an “open secret” since 2002. “They don’t provide weapons, but they provide the cash, which is easier anyway,” Prendergast said.
After Sept. 11, U.S. officials began to re-examine their policy toward Somalia, where lawlessness, uncontrolled borders and proximity to the Middle East have created a hotbed of terrorist activity.
U.S. officials believe that al-Qaida-linked terrorists, including suspects from the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, were being sheltered in Somalia as recently as a year ago.
In addition to establishing a large U.S. military base in Djibouti in 2002 and earmarking $100 million for anti-terrorism campaigns in East Africa, the U.S. counter-terrorism campaign has sought help from Somali warlords in hunting down suspected militants.
In 2003, warlord Mohammed Dheere helped capture terrorist suspect Suleiman Ahmed Hemed Salim and handed him over to the U.S., according to a report by International Crisis Group.
U.S. intelligence agencies have not uncovered evidence of a significant presence of al-Qaida terrorists in Somalia and have reached out to moderate Islamic groups in the country.
In recent months, hard-line Islamist groups in Somalia have been gaining power and popularity, establishing strictly enforced Islamic courts and raising their anti-Western rhetoric. They also are accused of being responsible for assassinations of several Somali officials and peace advocates.
Hard-line Islamist groups are accused of being responsible for assassinations of several Somali officials and peace advocates.
Source: Los Angeles Times, May 21, 2006
