منتديات نور الأدب - The Role of International Actors in Somalia:United States

Under the administration of President George W. Bush, US policy in the Horn of Africa has focused on combating the threat of terrorism and prioritizing strong relations with the Ethiopian government, Washington's only stable and reliable ally in the Horn. This narrow policy framework has exacerbated serious human rights problems across the region. Rethinking policy on Somalia means rethinking policy across the wider Horn.
The United States has consistently failed to exert significant pressure on the Ethiopian government to improve upon its dire human rights record-even though Washington has considerable leverage as the aid-dependant country's largest bilateral donor and most important political backer.[262] Some high-ranking US officials have rejected all evidence of human rights violations to insist that they do not know whether abuses in Ethiopia have taken place at all. In 2007, for example, US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer publicly stated that allegations of ongoing ENDF war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ethiopia's Somali region were "unsubstantiated," rather than express concern about the abuses to Ethiopian officials.[263]
The same policy framework has driven United States policy in Somalia. As in Ethiopia, Washington has turned a blind eye to ENDF laws of war violations in Somalia. US law forbids the US government from providing assistance to foreign military units involved in serious human rights abuses.[264] But US officials have made no credible effort to investigate and determine whether ENDF units implicated in abuses in Somalia are past or potential beneficiaries of US military training and assistance to Ethiopia.[265]
As the ICU consolidated control in Mogadishu, Washington came to view it as a terrorist threat. In mid-2006 the United States sought the handover of several non-Somali terrorist suspects who it believed were being sheltered by the ICU, but ICU leaders reportedly ignored those requests. Washington responded by backing a coalition of Somali warlords, each in command of personal militia forces, in a bid to oust the ICU from Mogadishu. The warlords, who played upon US terrorism concerns by branding themselves the "Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism," were defeated by the ICU in mid-2006.[266]
When Ethiopia decided to intervene militarily against the ICU and empower the TFG later that year, the United States provided staunch political and material support. Since then the United States has failed to publicly criticize the Ethiopian government over the serious and widespread abuses carried out by ENDF forces in Somalia or even acknowledge that those atrocities have taken place-the same approach Washington has taken with regard to ENDF abuses, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, inside of Ethiopia. High-level US officials have equally failed to demand accountability for TFG officials who are responsible for those abuses or to support the conditioning of donor support for TFG security forces on improvements in their appalling human rights record.
The US government continues to place central emphasis on efforts to eliminate so-called high-value targets with alleged links to al Qaeda in Somalia. The United States has carried out at least two airstrikes on Somali soil in 2008, both aimed at killing prominent Al-Shabaab leaders. The first, in Dhobley in March, did not find its target but injured several civilian residents of the town.[267] Many analysts believe the target of that raid was Hassan Turki, a prominent Al-Shabaab commander who controls Dhobley as well as the surrounding countryside.[268] The second, in Dhusamareb in April, killed Aden Hashi Ayrow, a prominent Al-Shabaab military commander who was on the US government terrorist list. The US government designated Al-Shabaab itself a terrorist organization on March 19, 2008.[269]
There is strong evidence that US policies in Somalia have aggravated the very concerns about terrorism they seek to address. Because of Washington's unreserved backing of Ethiopia's military intervention in Somalia, many Somalis see the United States as complicit in the military occupation of their country and in the atrocities they have suffered at the hands of ENDF forces. Washington has expressed strong support for an international stabilization force to replace the ineffective AMISOM contingent, but some insurgent leaders have sought to criticize the plan as an attempt to channel more international support behind the TFG.[270] The aftermath of US airstrikes have left a more lasting impression in the minds of many Somalis than US funding for humanitarian assistance.
From:"So Much to Fear"
The 104-page report
about
War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia

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