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Pepperspray Productions' "Indymedia Presents":
While all eyes have been on the horrors of the US involvement in Iraq,
and the potential for US aggression against Iran, there are other
places where US forces have been conducting military strikes against
civilians. One of those places is Somalia.
After many years without ANY central government in the Horn-Of-Africa
country Somalia, a calm moment and a ray of hope for a peaceful future
came to Somalia ...More
Pepperspray Productions' "Indymedia Presents":
While all eyes have been on the horrors of the US involvement in Iraq,
and the potential for US aggression against Iran, there are other
places where US forces have been conducting military strikes against
civilians. One of those places is Somalia.
After many years without ANY central government in the Horn-Of-Africa
country Somalia, a calm moment and a ray of hope for a peaceful future
came to Somalia, brought by the Islamic Courts, Somali church folks,
not terrorists by everyone's estimate—everyone except the US
government, that is. The Islamic Courts ran out the warlords, opened
the port, established order, ended the violence, made sure relief aid
got to the people, and mobilized a large portion of society to join in
on the effort to rehabilitate Somalia, with plans to reopen schools,
hospitals and provide all the support networks needed for a functioning
society. Rampant crime and the rule of the gun disappeared, and most
Somalis seemed to breathe a sigh of relief after so many harsh years of
chaos.
Some of the old warlords did a flanking maneuver, though, and got
themselves appointed as a "government in exile," and now they are
back, not as war-lords this time, but as the "internationally
recognized government." They arrived with the tanks and planes of the
Ethiopian Army, the historical enemy of Somalia. They were also backed
not just politically by the US but backed by US military firepower as
well. When the heavily armed and mechanized Ethiopians ran right over
the unfunded volunteers of the Islamic Courts, the US established a
naval blockade to keep the leaders of the Islamic Courts from escaping
the Ethiopian clutches. Then, in an even more blatant move, US airpower
struck several Somali villages, killing many. The aircraft used, the
AC130 was developed during the US War against Viet Nam, and was
nicknamed then "Puff the Magic Dragon." It is not used for surgical
strikes, but for putting a massive amount of firepower into a small
area. I remember well that back then it was said that in a three second
burst "Puff" could fill an area the size of a football field with one
big round in every square inch. Who knows what it is capable of now,
but when used against a village, this sort of weapon doesn't make
friends, it makes a lot of dead civilians. Meanwhile, Warlords and
criminals rule the street in Mogadishu, the historic capital of
Somalia, and life for the people has descended once again into hell.
With this background in mind, "Indymedia Presents" this week takes on
the question of Somalia.
First we present a piece made by PepperSpray Collective member Mahdy
Maaweel, a Somali-American film maker and producer of "Somalisan TV"
here in Seattle. The American Somali community has been holding
demonstrations in various places around the country protesting against
the invasion of Somalia. There has been almost no media attention to
their pleas. Most Americans don't even know that their government is
shooting things up in Somalia, so in covering this issue we feel we are
once again giving voice to those the corporate media would leave
voiceless.
To prove the points being made in that first piece, we finish the show
with a piece made by the United Nations in the early stages of the
Ethiopian invasion.
As Maaweel says to the camera, as you watch the UN report, remember
that it was the UN that said over and over again that there were no
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. To paraphrase an old blues song,
who you gonna believe, George Bush or your damn lying eyes?

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