Horn of Africa is now terror territory (Daily News)

Horn of Africa is now terror territory

October 23, 2006 Edition 1

Chris Tomlinson

NAIROBI: From the Red Sea to Lake Victoria, the Horn of Africa is one of the few places in the world where, if careful, a traveller can move 2 300km across four countries without producing a passport or encountering a single government official.

These footpaths, back roads and rivers have been used for centuries by merchants and slave traders, explorers, smugglers and bandits. Rebels easily sneak around the central governments in the big cities. So could any traveller. Even a terrorist.

Corrupt governments, porous borders, widespread poverty and discontented Muslim populations have created a region ripe for Islamic fundamentalism. The Horn of Africa, home to about 165 million people, is roughly half the area of the United States.

The six countries that make up the Horn Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Djibouti - could become the next major front in the war on terrorism. Kenyan police earlier this year caught a smuggler trying to bring in an anti-aircraft missile.

Kenya, and Tanzania just to its south, have already been victims of Al-Qaeda terrorism, with the bombings at the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, and attacks on a hotel and an Israeli airliner in Kenya in 2002. The attacks emanated from neighbouring Somalia, which has had no effective central government since 1992, and has a growing Islamic fundamentalist movement.

Western and regional diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, said they believe another terrorist attack could be eminent.

Robert Rotberg, director of Harvard University's programme on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution, said every country in the region is at risk because radicals see an opportunity to take advantage of weak, unpopular governments. Ethnic Somalis are the common denominator in the Horn of Africa, and their large presence in neighbouring countries has long been a source of conflict. In the mid-1970s, then Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre advocated expanding the country's borders to unite all Somali-speaking people in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. [Read more..]

US envoy accuses Eritrea of attacking Ethiopia through proxies in Somalia (AND)

US envoy accuses Eritrea of attacking Ethiopia through proxies in Somalia

October 23, 2006,

By www.andnetwork .com

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) today expressed outrage at the Ethiopian government’s continued silence about the report linking their security forces to nearly 200 deaths during two waves of protests over election results in 2005, and called for immediate passage of his bill to promote human rights and democracy in Ethiopia when Congress reconvenes.


Smith—who is the Chairman of the Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations Subcommittee and author of the “Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2006” (H.R. 5680)—said “Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s silence speaks volumes. The regime refuses to comment on the report, most likely because they never expected it to see the light of day. We have a responsibility to hold them accountable for their brutal actions as well as their subsequent efforts to suppress this inquiry.”

Smith added “this report should prompt the House to move on my bill when we reconvene. We must send a message to the Ethiopian government that these actions will not be tolerated.”

The independent Commission of Inquiry report found that Ethiopian security forces fatally shot, beat or strangled 193 people protesting election fraud last year—a number that far exceeds the Ethiopian government’s official death toll. The report also states that these demonstrators were unarmed, yet the majority died from shots to the head.

Wolde-Michael Meshesha, a vice chairman of the 10-member panel who conducted the investigation, said the Ethiopian government tried to suppress the inquiry and he has stated in news reports that he was told to change the results two days before the release of report. Meshesha fled Ethiopia in the wake of controversy surrounding the report and is in Europe seeking asylum.

The report comes well over a year after the first wave of violence, despite the Prime Minister's assurance to Rep. Smith during a meeting in August 2005 that there would be an expeditious and transparent investigation.

"This delayed, secret report, as well as the repeated delays in the trial of the opposition leaders, human rights activists and journalists, demonstrates an outright contempt for rule of law and due-process," Smith said.

The “Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2006” aims to bring democratic reform and accountability to Ethiopia by limiting U.S. security assistance to peacekeeping and counter-terrorism only; denying visas to anyone who was involved in the June and November 2005 killings of demonstrators; and by assisting political prisoners, indigenous Ethiopian human rights organizations, independent media, civil society and to promote legal training. Smith’s legislation passed the House International Relations Committee last June.

“This legislation helps strengthen the will of the Ethiopian people who want freedom and democracy, and will bring positive change to the circumstances that have limited progress in Ethiopia. It should be brought up for immediate consideration when the House reconvenes next month,” said Smith.
Ethiopian Review
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