بِسْمِ
اللّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
The following Q&A is based on a
translation of an Arabic article taken from the website of the Ameer of Hizb
ut-Tahrir, Sheikh Ata Ibn Khaleel Abu Al-Rishta. The original Arabic article
can be viewed here.
Background
An Ethiopian official has announced
that Ethiopia has decided to withdraw their armed forces from Somalia by the
end of this year. This statement comes in the wake of substantially increased
piracy activities in the Gulf of Aden along the Somali coastline during recent
months, which has increased dramatically in the past few days with the
hijacking of a Saudi tanker containing some two million barrels of crude oil
onboard.
At the same time, the media carried
a statement by Abdullah Yousuf, the transitional President of Somalia wherein
he said that Al-Shabaab - Mujahideen Youth Movement of Somalia controls most of
the country and that they are on the verge of taking over the capital
Mogadishu. Ethiopia, having suffered huge losses in Somalia is only grudgingly
staying put for now.
News agencies have broadcast a
statement by the Foreign Minister of Ethiopia at the IGAD countries' foreign
ministers' conference held in Addis Ababa on November 18th 2008 where he said:
"I want to stress again and make it very clear that the Ethiopian
forces are not prepared to continue to take the costly responsibility
indefinitely and it is important to send the correct message to the Somali
leaders at this crucial juncture."
Question
Does this indicate the frustration
of the American allies who are fighting on behalf of the US in Somalia and
their inability to hold on anymore?
How is the so-called ‘Djibouti
Accord' signed on 26th October 2008 relevant to this issue?
Finally, are such nation groups in a
position to influence the organisation technically and militarily, or are the
big powers behind them?
Answer
Yes, indeed piracy related activity
has increased considerably in the recent past and keeping this in mind, we can
note the following:
1. The majority of the ships hijacked
have either been European or owned by other countries, but no American ship has
so far been hijacked and they continue to work there without any interruption.
News agencies reported on 17th November 2008 a statement by
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said that
the pirates were highly trained and any military action (against them) would
only endanger the safety of the hostages.
Commander Jane Campbell, spokeswoman of the US Navy's 5th
Fleet, told the BBC on 18th November 2008 it had warned shipping companies that
the US naval presence could "not be everywhere", adding: "For
that reason we have strongly encouraged proactive self-protection measures for
the companies."
She said in another statement reported by Al-Arabiyyah on
19th November 2008 that they do not intend to intervene in the matter since
these activities are not of a military nature rather they are criminal
activities.
The BBC website reported on 20th November 2008 a statement
by the Pentagon spokesman Jeff Morell who said that even if all naval power
were to be deployed in the region, the problem would not be solved.
2. There has been a heavy presence of
foreign naval warships in the Gulf of Aden and along the Somalian coastline.
There are ships from the US Navy Fifth Fleet. NATO which decided last month on
9th October 2008 to send naval forces to the region also has warships. The
European Union decided on 10th November to launch a British-led anti-piracy
armada off the Horn of Africa called Operation Atalanta. Its mission is to
protect water ways south of the Red Sea from Pirate attacks, and will be
coordinated at Northwood, Britain's joint operation headquarters, under the
command of Rear Admiral Phil Jones. At least seven ships, including the frigate
HMS Northumberland, will take part in the mission.
Even before this latest deployment, a naval task force of
between 12 to 15 warships has been deployed in the region as part of Combined
Task Force 150 (CTF-150) a multinational coalition against piracy. Despite all
these efforts, piracy in the region has increased.
3. We believe that the Europeans and
especially the French, rushed rather frantically and responded to the events.
You can see them forming one force after another. Also, they were behind the UN
Security Council resolution No. 1816 of 2nd June 2008 which allowed naval
warships to enter Somali territorial waters to prevent piracy and armed attacks
on ships. This was to remain effective for a period of 6 months and could be
extended. This UNSC resolution was passed on the initiative of France.
It was reported on 16th November 2008 by the AFP that
Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister proposed carrying out air and
naval strikes in December in order to protect the region south of the Red Sea,
i.e. the Gulf of Aden & the coast line of Somalia from the pirates.
AFP also reported a statement from Rear Admiral Hubert de
Gaullier des Bordes, Commander of French naval forces in the Indian Ocean who
stressed that piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea had become a real
and professional paramilitary force. Germany also called for carrying out
military operations in the region. Then on 20th November 2008 the UNSC
unanimously passed the resolution at Europe's behest co-drafted by Britain.
This resolution called for penalising those who assist in the spreading of the
menace of lawlessness and violence in the Somali territories and coastline
including piracy.
4. On 18th November 2008, Al-Jazeera
reported that Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Chairman of the Alliance for the
Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) Djibouti wing, spoke of his surprise at the
increase in the piracy-related incidents despite the presence of fleets of
warships of the major powers in the region. The Sheikh added that this
‘mystery' was beyond comprehension.
On the same day, Al-Jazeera in its programme ‘Meet Today'
quoted Sheikh Omar Iman Abu Bakr, Chairman of the ARS Asmara Wing, said that
piracy is the handiwork of the Americans. He said that it is well known that
there are a large number of US ships present along the Somali coast and yet
piracy continues right under their noses. In fact the pirates are being trained
by US forces and they hijack ships laden with goods for Somalia and other
places under the eyes of the US.
5.
From all these facts, we are able to
conclude the following:
Firstly, the Americans have failed to achieve victory in
Somalia. The US army failed miserably during its invasion of Somalia in 1993.
They were unable to stay for more than 18 months before turning their backs in
humiliation. Ethiopia fought a proxy war in Somalia on behalf of the US but
like its master it has now abandoned its camps. Hence it is unlikely that the
US would win a war in Somalia in the foreseeable future at least.
Subsequent
to this defeat, the Americans decided to achieve a diplomatic and political
victory through tricky negotiations. They aimed to form a unity regime through
make-believe harmony between the government of Abdullah Yousuf and the Islamic
Courts. Though the US has succeeded in bringing together the Djibouti wing of
the Islamic Courts and Abdullah Yousuf who signed an accord on 26th October
2008, it is unlikely that this treaty would serve its purpose because of the
resistance of Al-Shabaab to this infamous accord. Al-Shabaab controls vast
portions of Somalia and as Abdullah Yousuf himself has conceded, they are on
the verge of entering the Capital itself. It is known that this movement broke
away from the Asmara and Djibouti wings of the Islamic Courts after they signed
the Asmara Accord in September 2007. Al-Shabaab accused both wings of the
Islamic Courts of aligning with the secularists and abandoning Jihad in the
path of Allah (swt).
Thus
the US failed to achieve a military victory or even a political victory in
Somalia.
Having
failed to achieve victory in Somalia, the Americans then decided to focus on
controlling the region through the seas. They made the Somali coast and the
Gulf of Aden as centres for hijacking international ships especially the
European ones, and thus engaging them in these pirate incidents. This,
according to the Americans will be Europe's ‘nightmare' which will ‘relieve’
the Americans of their earlier defeat on the Somali soil. The US would then
control the horn of Africa through the seas and then proceed on the shores.
Thus this piracy facade is in their terms, a 'creative' way to get involved in
the regional politics of the Middle East.
Subsequently,
through this maritime turmoil, they hope to achieve their goal of exercising
control over the Bab el-Mandeb in the Gulf of Aden on both sides, i.e. the
Yemeni side as well as the Djibouti side. This will in future enable them to
have control over Somalia again. Thus having engaged the Europeans in the
piracy turmoil, and driving away their navy, they will be in complete control
over the land as well as the Red Sea. It must be appreciated that this
sensitive region is economically and strategically a vital region since a third
of all crude oil as well as one tenth of sea transported goods pass through
this region.
Secondly, the US stance on the issue of piracy is that of
indifference while the Europeans who have suffered losses are highly concerned.
The Americans regard these as merely ordinary criminal acts and not terrorist
acts which merit military action. They consider any military action against
pirates as either ineffective or undesirable, not only that, they also hold
that even if all the countries were to unite, they would not be able to
restrict piracy.
This
stance of America has also influenced its agents in the region. In the meeting
of the five Arabian littoral states (countries with a coast) held in Cairo on
20th November 2008, Egypt tried to assemble a communiqué which referred to
respecting Somali territory and its territorial waters during any military
operation against piracy. This is diametrically opposed to the French view
which supports taking military action beyond international borders and
coastlines.
This
is the US stance on piracy, as opposed to the Europeans who regard it as a
paramilitary activity and as Sarkozy describes it, a real crime, which must be
dealt with through comprehensive military action against it during the next
month.
Thirdly, America has not shut its eyes with regard to
Djibouti. It has tried and continues to try and consolidate its hold there.
However, France regards Djibouti as its main centre in the region. Djibouti has
the largest overseas French base with more than 2700 French soldiers who can
launch land or air operations to the very heart of Africa in order to protect
French influence in the region.
France
is aware of American designs on Djibouti and has permitted the US to use its
old military base Camp Lemonier where America has placed less than a thousand
of its soldiers. Through this gesture, France hopes to limit US's aspirations
on Djibouti. However, the Americans have other designs on this base. They hope
to expand it to accommodate some two thousand troops under the guise of
fighting terrorism. In fact it was under this pretext that they first obtained
France's permission to enter the base.
The
newspaper Asharq Alawsat on 28th October 2008 quoted the French Defense
Minister as saying that the United States aimed to use this as their rear base
to fight terrorism and added that the American presence was not permanent but
was linked to fighting terror. He then stressed that the French presence was
permanent. This statement indicates that there is a certain amount of
apprehension about the French withdrawal and continued American presence in
Djibouti. Though the French Defense Minister merely alluded to it, a senior
French military official clearly stated in the same newspaper on the same day, "by
deploying its forces in Djibouti, America aims to ensure its permanent presence
in the horn of Africa in the hotbeds of conflict in Yemen, Somalia and even
Sudan."
Also
part of the US agenda is to establish a permanent base in Aden just as Britain
once did, so that the US can launch operations to consolidate its influence in
Yemen. This is why Yemen is apprehensive of the recent developments. On 18th
November 2008, Al-Jazeera reported a statement by Dr Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, the
Yemeni Foreign Minister wherein he expressed his concern over the concentration
of Western countries naval fleets in the Gulf of Aden under the pretext of
fighting piracy. The Yemeni Foreign Minister regarded this presence as a threat
to Arab security, and considered the ships deployment as internationalising the
Red Sea.
It is
this American aspiration on Djibouti and Aden that it has begun to ‘terrorise'
the international and European ships in order to engage them in terms of
security and then ease them out of the region or at least reduce their
presence.
Thus the issue of piracy is linked
to two points - the internal situation in Somalia, and the control over the
Gulf of Aden and the Somali coastal region. It must be noted that the US is
allowing piracy incidents to occur whilst it is present on the seas as its eyes
are set on the horn of Africa. At the same time, Europe is committed to
securing its interests and preventing piracy even if that involves taking
military action.
We can conclude from all of this
that piracy is thriving in the region because of America.
Finally, it hurts to see the Red Sea
and the Somali coast becoming a haven for the kufr colonialist nations while
the region's Islamic lands are suffering. At the same, the Muslim regimes
around the Red Sea and the Somali coastline have their hands stained with
Muslim blood and have merely become tools of the kufr countries in their
conflict over the hegemony in the lands, waters and airspace of the Muslims.
Truly, these rulers are akin to
beasts and indeed the Prophet (saw) said the truth when he warned:
"The people will be faced
with years of deceptions....and the beasts (ruwaibidah) will speak for them.
The companions asked him who are the beasts (ruwaibidah), he said: a trivial
stupid person will speak on people's matters."
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