Tanzanian Islamic newspaper tells USA to let Somalis “govern themselves”

Tanzanian Muslims hold placards as they demonstrate after Friday prayers on the streets of Dar Es Salaam

Excerpt from editorial entitled “Islam is what is being fought in Somalia” by Tanzanian weekly Islamic newspaper An-Nuur on 6 August

In his report entitled “Islamic courts union was better placed to pacifySomalia” (17 April 2007), Dominic Pkalya said, shortly after the government of the Union of Islamic Courts was driven out of power in December 2006, the only chance Somalis had to build a peaceful country had been snatched away, according to the opinion of experts at the time. The experts` views were informed on the fact that, in a short period of six months - beginning June to December 2006 - the courts were in power, Somalia was peaceful. Warlords were silenced and disarmed. Crime and looting ended and people resumed their normal lives of nation building.

The situation has, however, been different since the invasion of the Ethiopian army and formation of a subsequent government backed by the US. Clan fighting has once again resumed. Crime and evil of all kinds has returned reminiscent of the days before the Union of Islamic Courts capturedMogadishu.

Given this situation and before this truth that everyone confesses, the question to pose is: Why did America give Ethiopia the go-ahead to invade [Somalia] and fight the Union of Islamic Courts that had managed to restore peace to Somalia?

Perhaps this question should also be posed to the likes of Museveni, who are now masquerading as the peacemakers and saviours of Somalia, while he has failed to contain [Lord`s Resistance Army rebel leader] Joseph Kony.

“One of the lies peddled by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and its allies Ethiopia and United States, among others, that ICU was a bunch of Al-Qa`idah operatives, sympathisers and terrorists hell-bent on turning Somaliainto another Taliban-like regime, was a straight lie. A lie that intelligently fits very well in the post 9/11 discourse where if you don`t like a given regime or organization, the easiest bet is to label it terrorist and Al-Qa`idah operatives. With this label US and the coalition of the willing will be on your side, and this is exactly what TFG deed and indeed succeeded in duping the world,” Dominic writes. [Passage omitted]

And this is the reason that led thousands of US Somalis to stage protest marches against the Bush Administration when he used Ethiopia to topple the Union of Islamic Courts government. According to reports appearing in USmedia, over 1, 500 Somalis living in Minneapolis demonstrated against the USpolicy on the Islamic regime.

“No more war and Islam is the solution. We ask the president of the United States, Mr Bush, and his administration to stop supporting the terrorists. Ethiopian troops are the terrorists”, Mohamed, one of the leaders of the Somali community in Minneapolis told the demonstrators. An important aspect of this message of the Somalis is that Islam is the only way to achieve peace in Somalia and that, if America wants to fight terrorists, then it should fight against Ethiopia since these are the real terrorists.

This is the stand of Somalis inside and outside Somalia. They see foreign troops, including those from Uganda, as terrorists. And the reason for this is that these troops have come to bring war and not peace. And this is true, since after the American and Ethiopian governments entered Somalia and set up what they call a transitional government, together with the so-called peacekeeping troops, some 16 000 innocent people have been killed and millions others displaced.

Indeed, Somali citizens continue suffering because of injustices they face in the hands of America. Since the US used Ethiopia to bring chaos and war, Somalis have suffered disasters never seen before.

We remind people like President Barack Obama, and his proxies like Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, that if there is one thing Somalis need, it is to be left alone to govern themselves without the interference of colonialist America.

Source: An-Nuur, Dar es Salaam, in Swahili 6 Aug 10

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