Somalia is 'most ignored tragedy'
The world should be shocked at the systematic destruction of Somalia's capital Mogadishu and its residents, says lobby group Human Rights Watch.
The organisation told the BBC the city had become a zone of free-fire between government and insurgent forces.
It said if such a situation was happening anywhere else in the world, like Georgia or Lebanon for example, it would be considered a travesty.
Instead Somalia was the most ignored tragedy in the world today, HRW said.
Mogadishu is dying.
It is a city on the Indian Ocean coast that used to be one of Africa's trading hubs with the Middle East.
Now whole swathes of it are rubble or skeletons of buildings without doors or windows or roofs.
The most shocking, eerie aspect of it is that in many parts of the capital all the people have fled.
Aid vacuum
The fighting is between the US-backed government and Islamist and nationalist insurgents, who Washington accuses of having links with al-Qaeda.
The Somali government has no capacity to count the number of people who have fled and there are no international aid workers left to do the job because they would be kidnapped for ransom or murdered.
But the fighting has been worse for the ordinary residents of Mogadishu than even the infamous period in the early 1990s that spawned the film Black Hawk Down, a portrayal of American troops killed in Somalia at that time.
Today is worse than Black Hawk Down for the people of Mogadishu, much worse.
I was in the city in the early 1990s. It was an extremely violent time.
Not a night passed without explosions lighting up the sky but even that did not empty the capital of Somalia like the daily fratricidal confrontations now taking place between the government and its armed opponents.
article from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7653928.stm
Civil courts are always needed anywhere.
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
Brit i think its time the US just should accept Islamic movements and focus Al Qaeda and their enemies. but not to make enemy for every Muslim group.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
I have to agree with you, but its all a very strange. Perhaps there is a need to move away from using the term "Islamic"..
Last week I was talking to an American Afghani friend who recently spent some time in Kabul doing voluntary work. He said that most people were now fed up of the warlords and Karzai and would welcome back the "Taliban" in some form.
So perhaps the answer in both places is to include these in forming the new governments.
Yeah abu nothing we can do , we can just lose sometime talking about it in QL lol.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
hope your family find peace and happiness at some point realsomeone, it is a tradegy..
i still think Congo (5 million dead - 1,200 per day) and CAR get far less publicity than Somalia
I do think that issues should be tackled holistically and not individually..
the crisis in former Yugoslavia effected the mission in Somalia - Black Hawk down had reprecussions in Rwanda (kill some Belgiums and the UN will withdraw) - Rwanda had reprecussions in the Congo...
Anyway last week i was Congo reading this week it is Rwanda again.
B
the troops turn up and they are meant to bring all their supplies which includes, ammo, food and field hospital and somewhere to sleep
Which they dont or is 'delayed in transit'
and stuff arrives broken without spares etc
So the commander then has to deal with several hundred troops and find them shelter and food from somewhere....
So if the troops themselves aren't self sustaining how can they work to help others??????????
C
Kakuma Camp is enormous in Northern Kenya and has refugees from everywhere.
Oryx maybe you just watch the Piracy News lol. its not only about the Media about the World and so called International community.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
IGNORED - SOMALIA???
what news service do you all watch??
Congo is ignored - for sure
but Somalia is quite high profile due to its location and the nature of what is going on there...
Bare in mind TV can only report from places it can get to... so travelling around Somalia isn't exactly easy peasy
criminals i mean Warlords and Ethiopian regime, because if the US doesnt drop terrorist charges it wont ever be solved in peaceful manner and the Islamic courts will take control and kick their ass.
because anyway there is no such a things as terrorits in that parts of the world. none of them has harmed US interests anywhere.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
Realsomeone in response to your "proposal":
a) I agree Ethiopian troops should leave. There is much too much suspicion between Ethiopia and Somalia and Ethiopia appears heaviliy biased. However, if wealthy nations will not involve themselves in an attempt to maintain peace, one wonders if this is better than nothing perhaps? Well, I still think Ethiopia should leave. Also, a lot of states within the region themselves are heavily biased to either side...Djibouti, Egypt, Yemen...leave alone the international community.
b)The AU is UN sanctioned. However again, similar to a) is the fact that there simply isn't enough monetary support for an effective peace keeping mission. I think the AU is doing what it can with what it has. You'd be surprised to find that a majority of its member states do not pay their contributions so how exactly is it meant to make good on the many resolutions made?
c)US drop all terrorist charges? Why, when you then go on to say that criminals should face the ICC?
In response to your apparent surprise that the international community responded so well and so fast to the ethnic violence in Kenya, you should be thanking your lucky stars. Kenya has long been considered impartial in the Somali crisis and for years we have acted as mediator. Need I also mention the half a million or so Somali refugees who are now in Kenya living a life that has some semblance of peace and affords them a chance to make a living.
------------Virgos dont like chaos, gerrit? ----------
brit thanks for your always sense of understanding, let me explain to you, the US has suspected the Courts had people linked to Al qaeda . guess what their response was? they said send your investigators and meet us we will open everywhere for you and let you meet everyone to clear your concerns already this time the US was equipping the Ethiopian army to invade, thousands of them were already in Baidoa Town 200km from Mogadishu.
and already the US was funding 200,000$ for the warlords each when they were fighting with the courts. so US never gave a positive chance to the Courts.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
of course we will never agree on this terms lol because i usually dont use the terms used by the US to describe their enemies because they arent my enemy anyway.
but to come back to the point, they are freedom fighters for us where they are fundamentalists for you.
and yes i agree with you the Somalia problem did not started with US rendition flights but guess what it has never been so bad until the US intervened. read the article and you can understand the situation.
clearblue i really have very high hope that they will bring things under control soon. insha allah.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
there was actually a semblence of 'law and order" when the "Islamists" were in power briefly. Theerfore, why did the people allow them to be deposed?
i don't think somalia's problems started because of US kidnappings. if the current situation in somalia were not so dyer, i would laugh at this comment.
i think attacking afghanistan was correct. if the US had done what was right and not attacked iraq, they could have kept their focus where it should have been and afghanistan would not be the mess it is today. i'm not going to argue this point with you - i know where you stand, you know where i stand.
i think fundamentalist is exactly the right word to use. i can understand that you would not agree. based on comments you have made in the past it seems to me that you sympathize with fundamentalists. i would have thought that the history in your country would teach you otherwise, but if you believe that this is all because of US renditions, or white house supported dictators, then i can see why it hasn't.
i've got a lot on my plate today so i won't be around to respond to you. i guess we can both agree that the situation in somalia is terrible and many innocent people need help.
___________________________________________
"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day." Withnail & I
clearblue luckily the good news is they are getting the upper hand now according this Reuters article http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnLM516857.html
and yes they are the only ones that can bring stability and unity because they hate tribalism.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
not really, Zimbabwe has got global coverage i have never seen an african country covered so much as to Zimbabwe and Kenya violence and these are nothing close to the tragedy in Somalia.
probably because the big boss(US) is involved here.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
zimbabwe also happens to be an ignored tragedy....
"And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course" -Khalil Gibran
WithNail unfortunately i dont agree with your use of the word fundamentalist but let us be clear Somalia has not had any radical groups before.
the US started rendition flights in Somalia to capture innocent Mosque imams, we realized many people are disappearing every night, guess who was doing this? the warlords to sell the people to US.
the people got angry and fought against the warlords thank God we won and had 6 months of peace and stability. what happened US sent 50thousand ethiopian soldiers and destroyed everything.
come on, what did US accomplished in Afghanistan?
the US policy in Somalia is backfiring now because of wrong foreign policy pursued.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
if I am not mistaken, the US is meddling because it is worried that Somalia will be taken over by fundamentalists and become the next al qaeda training ground. although i am no fan of US foreign policy, recent history in afghanistan does support their position on this issue.
solely blaming the white house or Adis Ababa won't accomplish anything.
___________________________________________
"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day." Withnail & I
first of all let me tell you who the goverment is, they are all former warlords and criminal elements who overthrow the 1990 goverment. they are very unpopular in the eyes of somali population
so here is my opinion to what to do to fix the problem. first the Ethiopian troops should leave immediately, a UN backed or Arab or Muslim nations should send peace keeping mission, dissolve this puppy goverment and let the somali elders and clean people make decision who they want to lead, disarm all militias, US should drop all of their terrorist charges, all criminals should be brought to international court. that is my opinion for the way forward.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
http://yadiin.blogspot.com/
How sad is all of it ! Especially - that during the previous years it seemed that it was getting better .I had some friends who sent there son back to Somalia "because the schools there are better than in Doha ".Then Ethiopia attacked the country and people are fleeing the country again .
realsomeone I agree with you to some extent. It really is tragic to see your people suffering.
Lets have a discussion that moves away from the normal "Big Bad Bush". What would you recommend as the way forward? Britexpat says the Horn must unite. True. But how? Kenya has tried repeatedly to mediate between the warring factions no sooner than progress is made, it goes up in smoke.
------------Virgos dont like chaos, gerrit? ----------
the chances are very slim brit for unity in that part of the world, things now become very bad the whole thing was about tribes and warlords before but now. its all about Al-shabaab, alqeada, ethiopia, US, pirates, AU. there are too many players to control.
i really feel very bad when i remember the situation my own family lives now in displace out skirts of mogadishu. the hope of returning home is fading everyday.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
My point was that it ws the Somali leaders who allowed the USA to use ethiopia as a proxy for the current crisis.
The Horn needs to unite and stand up for itself.
i take responsibility for what we did from the first place but now its more out of control for something that the poor somalians can take of responsibility global super powers are playing the game now.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
Seems the pirates are putting the Horn back on the international radar.
Realsomeone, I think you err in your apportioning of blame and responsiblity. I also think as a citizen of Somalia (you are, yes?) THAT is the real tragedy.
------------Virgos dont like chaos, gerrit? ----------
brit yeah but war lords are not anymore to blame, now the big guy at the white House and his fellow dictator on Adis Ababa are solely responsible for making the beautiful city a ghost town because of daily indiscriminate shelling.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
It's a tragedy, but one of their own making. The War lords are to blame and innocents are dying every day..
yeah but it seems Qlers also choose to ignore this tragedy.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
You're right, it's a tragedy.