March 18, 2005 - 14:44
Editorial: Ethiopia as an enemy is engraved in the collective memory of Somali people    

The newly formed Somali parliamentarian's fist fight over the deployment of Ethiopian troops is a small precedent of what is in store if Ethiopia and IGAD countries insist on including troops from neighboring countries in the peace keeping forces to be sent to Somalia.

It is not only wise but also pragmatic to exclude troops from neighboring countries and particularly Ethiopia from the African or international peacekeeping force for Somalia. The name Ethiopia is engraved in the collective memory of the Somali people as an enemy of Somalia and Islam. From the 16th Century when Imam Ahmed Ibrahim Al Gazi, commonly known as Ahmed Gran or Ahmed Gurey, launched a religious war against Christian Ethiopia, a psychology of enmity had marred the relations between the peoples of the two neighboring countries. The British annexation of Haud and Reserved areas to Ethiopia when the struggle of Somalis for their struggle was at its zenith had hardened the feelings of Somalis against Ethiopia and spurred their patriotic fervor of unifying all Somalis under one flag. This included also the Somalis of Djibouti, French Somali Coast by then, and those of the Kenyan Northern Frontier District, known among Somalis by its nationalistic name of NFD as well as the British Protectorate of Somaliland (now Somaliland) and Italian Somalia. The latter two parts became independent in 1960 and entered into an ill-fated union; making the Somali Republic.

Since then liberation movements armed and financed by the previous civil and military governments of Somalia have fought relentlessly against Ethiopian, Kenyan governments and French colonial authorities in Djibouti.

The various Ogaden liberation movements, the Shiftas in Kenya and the liberation movements in Djibouti in early sixties up to late seventies were all part of this scenario of liberating Somalis from foreign domination and bringing them under the banner of the blue flag with its five cornered star representing the five parts of the Somali people.

The decision of Djibouti to stay away from Somalia and the defeat of the Somali military in the Ogaden desert by Soviet and Cuban supported Ethiopian forces in 1977, have dealt a mortal blow to the dream of Greater Somalia. However, the brutal and dictatorial regime of Siyad Barre had put the final nail on the coffin of Greater Somalia when he turned his military might against his own people, thus forcing the mushrooming rebel movements to seek refuge and military support from Ethiopia.

Though under a new and younger leadership who owe a lot to the Somali people for the assistance they received from the Somali government during their struggle to topple the communist and tyrannical regime of Mengiste Haile Mariam, it seems the Tigrean regime in Addis Ababa has found the disintegration of the Somali state as a god-sent opportunity to fulfill its centuries old goal of portraying the Somalis as unruly nomadic tribes that cannot survive away from the influence and rule of the Ethiopian empire. Exploiting the chaos created by the civil war and the vacuum created by the removal of the central government, Ethiopia found it easy to play the opportunistic warlords against one another and change them like a deck of cards as she wished. The Ethiopian Tigrean leadership has failed, however, to read that the strong anti-Ethiopian psyche of the Somali people nurtured by years of nationalistic propaganda by successive Somali governments and genuine blood-ties between Somalis was hard to die. The outcry of the Somali people everywhere against the deployment of Ethiopian troops is but the tip of the iceberg of the hostile attitude waiting to greet the Ethiopians in Mogadishu.

It is also worth remembering that with the first killing of a Somali by Ethiopian soldiers in Mogadishu or anywhere else thereafter will rekindle these centuries-old enmity and open old wounds. Not only the nationalistic feelings will then be re-awakened among Somalis but the banner of Islam will also be raised against the occupying Ethiopian troops and the heroic deeds of Imam Ahmed Gran will be recalled and preached in the Mosques. This would definitely give a new lease of life to Militant Jihadist groups which would have otherwise seen their end in the hands of Abdillahi Yusuf Ahmed, known for his secular attitudes and his strong intolerance to Islamic movements. Fatwas on Jihad would be issued and streets of Mogadishu would witness bloody clashes between the Somalis and Ethiopian soldiers. It won't be surprising also to see other anti-Ethiopian liberation movements such the Ogaden Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Movement finding a golden opportunity to fight their war against the Ethiopian troops in the streets of Mogadishu. Such clashes would also grab the attention of the Muslim world; thus spurring foreign legions of Bin Ladens and Zarqawi's to find their way to heaven to kill the infidel Abyssinian soldiers in Somalia.

This scenario may seem to be a little far-fetched or even depressing to those weary of the Somali problem and want to see a lasting solution for it but it would be foolish to escape from the ugly reality that the deployment of Ethiopian troops may trigger a fresh wave of terror and usher in a new era of instability, chaos and destruction in the whole region of the Horn of Africa.