By Thomas C. Mountain
Online Journal Contributing Writer
ASMARA, Eritrea -- The UN inSecurity Council has done it again in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia has been committing genocide in the Ethiopian Ogaden and in response the UN Security Council, in a closed door meeting, passed sanctions against . . . Eritrea?
In the bizarre world of the UN Security Council, black is white, up is down and right is wrong. Ethiopia can invade its neighbors (Eritrea in 2000, Somalia in 2006) steal an election (2005, in the process of which Ethiopian troops gunned down over 200 protestors and locked up another 50,000) and commit crimes against humanity against its own people, including ethnic cleansing in western Ethiopia and outright genocide in the Ogaden, and remain untouched.
Eritrea can help bring peace to Sudan, including eastern Sudan, the North-South civil war and now in Dafur and in reward be sanctioned by the UN Security Council. What were the charges against Eritrea? Supporting terrorism in Somalia, i.e., providing arms to the Al Shabab Somali resistance.
As one who spent many hours sharing cappuccinos with the Somali resistance in the lobby of the former Imperial Hotel here in Asmara (I have renamed it the Peace Hotel for it seems all of the peace deals brokered here in the Horn of Africa were born there), I can speak from firsthand experience that the one Somali resistance organization that I have never been introduced to is the Al Shabab leadership. Of course, the evidence for such charges is pretty non-existent or even laughable. For example, the UN “Monitoring Committee” for Somalia is the main source of charges that Eritrea has provided weapons to Al Shabab. Never mind that this same “Committee” also issued a widely ridiculed report that Somali Jihadists fought alongside Hezbollah in the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war. Even Israeli intelligence officers had a good laugh at this one.
In contrast, Dumusani Khumalo, South Africa’s Ambassador to the UN and the chair of the UN special committee on Somalia has just issued a report that said that at least 80 percent of the arms available in Somalia came from Ethiopia or were arms “donated” by the USA and other Western countries to the so-called “Somalia Transitional Government” and then sold on the black market, oftentimes to the resistance. So much for enforcing the UN arms embargo for Somalia. Just another case of acquired amnesia for the “distorters” working for the Western media here in East Africa.
A few years back, the “Special Monitoring Committee for Somalia,” aka the CIA, issued a report that arms shipments were arriving in Somalia via Asmara Airport here in Eritrea and even provided a registration number for the aircraft. But when a little research was done, it turned out that the aircraft in question was registered to a well known Russian arms dealer with a long history of working for . . . the CIA!
No one has bothered trying to explain how Eritrea was able to sneak arms shipments past all the naval task forces assembled in the Indian Ocean to try to prevent piracy. No one has been able to explain how Eritrea was able to sneak arms past both the French and USA military in Djibouti, with all their satellite technology and around the clock intel systems. No one has been able to explain how no arms shipments from Eritrea to Al Shabab have ever been captured. But then the Western media doesn’t have to explain anything, just report whatever the CIA tells them and move on to the next story.
As someone with a long background in the history of the Horn of Africa, this latest distortion of reality by the UN Security Council comes as no surprise. The UN has violated its own charter so many times in matters concerning Africa’s Horn we have lost count. This latest shameful act is just another in a long, disgraceful history going back to the UN/USA handing over the former Italian colony of Eritrea to the USA cop on the beat at the time, the Haile Selassie regime in Ethiopia and Eritrean independence be damned.
We here in Eritrea have come to expect that no good deed goes unpunished and bringing peace to the Horn of Africa is in opposition to USA imperial policy. The USA does NOT want peace in Africa, just the opposite. With peace could come strong, nationalistic governments and how is the USA and its Western partners in crime going to be able to rape and pillage Africa’s raw materials at will if this is the case?
A good example is how the Anglo-American Mining company operates one of the largest gold mines in the world in Tanzania, for which the Tanzanian people receive a whopping 5 percent royalty. That’s right, for every $1,000 per ounce of Tanzanian gold sold. Anglo-American receives $950 with Tanzania receiving just $50. This isn’t partnership; this is theft.
Compare this to Eritrea where the Canadian company Nevsun will be opening the Bisha Gold Mine later this year. Eritrea will be receiving 40 percent of the profits and Nevsun 60 percent. This should give you pretty good idea of why the USA and its Western capos are hell bent on destroying Eritrea, or at least bringing us to heel, you know, kneel down and kiss the masters feet. Africa remains about the only place in the world that the West is able to exploit without restriction and without Africa’s wealth it will be increasingly impossible for the Western countries to maintain their bloated standard of living.
Stay tuned to Online Journal for news from the Horn of Africa that the so-called Free Press in the West refuses to cover.
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