AMISOM equates to DESTRUCTION of Mogadishu!!

This is the 4th tragic anniversary since the first patch of AMISOM armed contingents landed on Adan Abdulle Osman National Airport in Mogadishu in 2007. It marks also the culmination of the man slaughter of thousands of civilian residents in Mogadishu, as the war ravages had affected the displacement of a ¼ of a million of Mogadishu residents, who fled their homes and ended up in internal displacement, or joined into refugee camps in Kenya and elsewhere.

Article Keydmedia Online
28 March 2011

This is an act of political vendetta seeded by the former TNG President Mr. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed along with his Prime Minister Mr. Ali Mohamed Geddi in their effort of taking over income revenues generated from Mogadishu Port and the Airport and handing taxi collection management over to AMISOM contingent.

Such move undermined the credibility of TNG and increased the mistrust of the people, while discrediting the Ethiopian forces, which were on the move and hunting down al-Shabab insurgent more vigorously than AMISOM engagement.

The AMISOM presence in Somalia is a blatant political farce of the 1st degree since day one, and it is unprecedented in the modern history of UN peace keeping missions. AMISOM is created as a peacekeeping force, but they are armed to the teeth and kill, mime and destroy the lives and properties of non-combatant civilian population. Day or night, AMISOM launches its artillery tag of war at random on heavily populated business centers, like the Baraka business center- and residential locations in Mogadishu, firing tank shells and large caliber mortars that kill people and cripple the heart of the nation’s economy. Unfortunately, the UN Secretary General known that such mission reduces havoc to the lives and properties of civilian residents in Mogadishu in the past four years and still ongoing, but he act out as sideline by stander.

Following a traditional military doctrine, AMISOM is true to its mission of killing their enemy and non-combatant civilians alike before they are killed- a blind move that had causes the death and injury of thousands of war ravaged population in Mogadishu. The current political instability of the southern and central regions of Somalia has to do with the testing of the “World Order Policy” in progress sought after by the Security Council of the UN since the early days in 1992.

True, AMISOM has to kill the common enemy-namely al-Shabab- but has to spare the lives and properties of the residents of the Capital City of the nation, and we agree wholeheartedly with that prospective. But this military engagement can better be done by empowering the former Somali national army staff that is better suited to do the job in a subtle way rather than employing a foreign army fighting in dark alleys of unfamiliar territory, while confronting a diabolical adversary in urban warfare.

This is a one billion dollar question: How can one takes out an al-Shabab insurgent hunkering in a foxhole dug in the courtyard of residential alleys without killing the people sleeping in the next house by launching blind mortar rounds five miles away? The short answer is unpractical and doing so equates to committing human crimes. It is unfortunate that the tragic consequence of such reckless military operations fall into the deaf ears of the Security Council of the UN. In short, UN adverse action is unaccountable, and the victimized Somalis are dispensable.

Solution: In my opinion, AMISOM force should limit its active military engagement and provide only logistics to trustworthy Somali security forces commanded by committed former military commanders under the contract awarded by the UN in order to eliminate al-Shabab to the last fighter. It is time that UN and AMISON should stop in their futile efforts of weeding out al-Shabab day after day, year after year and without gaining any tangible results. Come up with feasible ways to end the tag of war in Somalia, and you have the moral support of the Somali people.

The outstanding tragic situation will remain in steadfast as long as no one ever raises a valid point of finding a better way to settle the political instability of the southern regions of Somalia.

Another tragic exercise caused by the AMISOM presence is that it fights with brand new firearms now and then. Although it is internationally forbidden to exercise brand new weapons in water body essential to the living hood of the people, AMISOM fires the new arms into the Indian Ocean next door to their living quarters in order to check up its effects on marine life. Currently, fish catch in the coastal line of Mogadishu is getting scarcer due to the lethality of the weapons in use. Perhaps this new development has not yet caught the attention of the international mass-media, or perhaps they see it but written off as not newsworthy, as it comes down to UN mandated military operations in Somalia.

UN beefs up allocation of funds for AMISOM peace keeping mission, while maintaining the current status quo stalemate, which is translated into firing more rounds of tank shells and mortars and causing more death and injury of civilian population day after day, and without liquidating al-Shabab insurgents for good.

However, this military deployment is a financial goldmine for the Ugandan and Burundian local economy. Respective countries are happy that their forces are engaged in peace keeping mission in Mogadishu and earning remittance funds from the UN, the EU and the African Unity.

Unfortunately, UN never questions how to fight al-Shabab and avert the civilian calamity, except the Human Watch Group, who voiced out its concerns in regard to such negative AMISOM military engagement in Mogadishu several times since the last four years. It is equally unfortunate that no UN organization keeps the tally of human casualties and properties destroyed since AMISOM landed in Mogadishu airport four years ago…!

No member in the Security Council of the UN had ever questioned the moral dimension of keeping alive the destruction of civilian population of all walks of life; while protecting a handful of TFG ineffective officials living in a few enclaves of Mogadishu, who are contesting each other to stay longer in power rather than serving their people and coming up with better ways to ending the current political crises in the country…!

Of course, there are better ways of defeating an evasive enemy, yet sparing the lives and properties of the civilian population. There’s a better way rather than employing a foreign army in the hope of delivering a peaceful, stable country populated by thousands of well-seasoned radicals who are determined to resist any foreign interference in their internal affairs …!

This is a fact of scientific proof: As gravity pulls down everything on the ground, so is the Somali political solution which is in the hands of its people. So back off everyone, including AMISOM and the UN and let the Somalis clean up their political mess and take care of their destiny.

Another piece of advice: In Somalia, never take sides by backing up one clan, tribe, group entities, or regional authorities- even if that is a genuine step opted out in a compelling circumstance. In doing so creates political volatility that could turn into a counter-productive nightmare.

Asli Mahamud - Ohio - Keydmedia Correspondent