The U.S. Role in the Wars in Congo and Somalia

The U.S. Role in the Wars in Congo and Somalia

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When
the U.S. corporate media reports on the contemporary affairs on the
African continent, the content and direction of the stories never
highlight the role of the multi-national corporations and the
military-industrial-complex in initiating underdevelopment and
fostering political instability. The claim that the United States was
not involved in the colonization of the African continent is misleading
to the say the least and objectively false.

In fact it was the
involvement of the European ruling class within the North American
continent in the Atlantic Slave Trade that dramatically altered the
global balance of political and economic forces. The British, French
and Spanish all had colonies inside the area which became known as the
United States. The expansion of the nation-state after the independence
of the European settler-class created the conditions for the country to
become dominant among other colonial and imperialist rivals.

African
slavery reaped tremendous profits for both the planters and the
burgeoning industrialists in the United States. The contradictions
between the two competing economic systems of slavery and industrial
capitalism lead to the civil war between 1861-65. After 1865,
industrialization grew rapidly particularly in the north and the
northeast of the country.

The economic and political status of
the U.S. grew with the rapid industrialization after the mid-19th
century. At the conclusion of the so-called Spanish-American war at the
turn of the 19th and 20th century, the ruling class was able to
effectively challenge any attempt by other western European states to
gain a base inside the western hemisphere as well as the Philippines.

With
the advent of the automotive and steel industries, the growth in
individual wealth reached levels never previously achieved. Then came
World War I, when millions died in the scramble for the colonial
territories where the mining industries would further impoverish the
oppressed nations.

During the 1920s there was widespread
immigration and migration in the United States. Industrial development
and banking became even stronger than the period of the early 20th
century. However, the great crash of 1929 brought the system to a
screeching halt.

The New Deal, which is often referred to
during the current period of economic downturn, did not bring the
United States out of the Great Depression. It was only the beginning of
war production after 1940 and the draft, that created full-employment.
After the War, with Europe and Asia devastated by conventional combat,
the United States became the most dominant and influential nation in
the world.

Nonetheless, the Soviet Union, the anti-fascist
forces and the anti-colonial movements served as the real challenge to
U.S. hegemony. A watseful "cold war" continued from 1945 to 1990, where
military expenditures grew by leaps and bounds. It was the imperialists
countries in the continued quest for world domination that drove the
struggle between world capitalism on the one hand, and socialism and
the anti-imperialist and anti-colonial movements, on the other.

The Imperialists Undermine Congo Independence

After
the independence of the Congo in June of 1960, the former colonial
power of Belgium and other imperialist states, with a leading role
being played by the United States, set out to undermine the country's
sovereignty.

Lumumba was placed under house arrest by the
United Nations forces in August of 1960. Eventually he fled
Leopoldville and traveled to the east of the country where his support
was strong. The pro-Lumumbaist forces had established a base in
Orientale Province at the capital of Stanleyville, where the Prime
Minister and his family were heading when they were intercepted by the
Congolese National Army (ANC) soldiers who were loyal to Mobutu.

The
Congolese military had split along similar lines as the political class
within the country during the post-independence crisis. The base of
operations in Orientale Province held out until it was forcefully
suppressed in 1964, with the widespread assistance of the American
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under the-then President Lyndon B.
Johnson and the racist colonial governments of Rhodesia, South Africa,
Portugal, France, Britain and Belgium.

Even though the
secession of Katanga was eventually reversed by the United Nations in
late 1961, the damage caused by the coup d'etat against the MNC-Lumumba
and its allies were to have deep repercussions for the nation's future.

Mobutu's coup in 1965 against Kasabuvu and the-then recently
displaced Moise Tshombe, who had been appointed Prime Minister of Congo
in 1964 in a bid to create a supposed "unity government", continued the
process of the exploitation of the national wealth of the country by
foreign imperialist interests.

After the changing of the
country's name to Zaire in 1971, Mobutu maintained the large scale
presence of mining conglomerates inside the country whose activities
never benefited the workers and peasants of Congo.

Several
attempts were made during the late 1970s and mid-1980s to initiate a
broad-based guerrilla insurgency aimed at toppling the regime of Mobutu
Sese Seko. During 1977-78, the Zairian regime was supported by the
active military units of France and European mercenary groups to put
down a revolt in the mineral rich Shaba province.

Although
these campaigns during the 1970s and 1980s only gained limited results
and were eventually halted, they illustrated the degree of discontent
still prevalent within the country.

Active political groups
such as the Front for the Liberation of Congo (FLNC), the MNC-Lumumba
and the Movement of Workers and Peasants (MOPP) continued to organize
underground for the overthrow of the western-backed Mobutu regime. The
government had contnued its alliance with settler-colonialism in
Southern Africa and supported counter-revolutionary "pseudo-liberation
movements" such as UNITA, FLNA, and FLEC in Angola during the 1970s,
80s and 90s.

With the overthrow of the Apartheid system in
1994, the UNITA organization continued to rely on Mobutu in its
campaign aimed at the destabilization of Angola. Prior to this period,
UNITA was heavily financed and politically assisted by the apartheid
regime in South Africa and the United States Government.

The Rwandan Factor

In
Rwanda, the former military regime of Juvenal Habyarimana, which
suppressed democracy and national political pluralism, enjoyed firm
support within the Mobutu government. Consequently, when President
Habyarimana was killed in a plane crash on April 6, 1994, the
subsequent Rwandan Hutu based leadership and its 1.5 million
supporters, who had carried out the genocidal murders of 500,000 Tutsi
and moderate Hutu civilians, were given asylum in Zaire, creating one
of the largest refugee crises in the history of post-colonial Africa.

Ironically
it was the political fallout associated with the presence of the Hutu
refugee camps in eastern Congo that precipitated the widespread
uprising against the Mobutu regime. Having become alienated within
Africa and the international community, Mobutu enjoyed very limited
support when violence erupted in the eastern provinces during the
latter portion of 1996.

The ADFL Revolt and Africa's World War

World
attention became focused on the situation in eastern Congo, when in
October of 1996, there was an outbreak of fighting between the
Banyamulenge Tutsi and Zairian soldiers around Uvira. Clashes also
erupted between the Interhamwe Hutu militia elements from the Rwandan
refugee camps and the Banyamulenge, who are indigenous to Congo and are
related to the Tutsi nationalities in Rwanda and Burundi.

As a
result of the renewed fighting, some 250,000 refugees abandoned their
camps in Uvira and headed towards Bakavu. By the time of their arrival
at Bakavu, the situation in the area was complicated by the escalation
of oppression against the Tutsi nationality by the Zairian regime.
Africans of this nationality origin were unjustly stripped of their
citizenship rights and ordered to leave the country for Rwanda.

However,
the Zairian military and the Interhamwe militias were proven to be no
match for the Banyamulenge guerrilla fighters, who eventually seized
control of Nyangezi, south of Bakavu, on October 24, 1996. The
following day, the rebel's leadership announced that the goal of their
movement was to topple the Mobutu regime and establish a new government
in the country.

At the same time they named Laurent Kabila as
their leader and delcared themselves the Alliance of Democratic Forces
for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL). In subsequent days, the political
and military momentum of the uprising accelerated when the Alliance
took control of Bakavu on October 28.

As a result of these
advances of guerrilla forces who took control over eastern Congo,
250,000 refugees from Rwanda left their camps at Bakavu and headed
towards Goma. In the midst of the intensive military offensives
launched by the ADFL, the Zairian military rapidly crumbled, fleeing
and hiding from the battle lines determined by the guerrilla forces.

International
involvement in the guerrilla offensive launched by the ADFL had been
widely reported in the corporate media. In addition to logistical and
political support from Rwanda, the Ugandan military was accused of
intervening and temporarily seizing control of the Congolese towns of
Masabwa, Kasindi, Manda and Mutanga, in order to weaken the Zairian
military and to retaliate against a purported cross-border violation of
Ugandan territory.

Also the Republic of Angola began to supply
air support and transportation to the ADFL forces. In contrast, the
counter-revolutionary UNITA organization of Angola sent several units
of its military to fight alongside Mobutu, a longtime patron of this
apartheid and U.S.-backed group headed by Jonas Savimbi.

During
the concluding phase of the war, it was reported that the most
formidable Zairian resistance to the capturing of the town of Kenge,
near the capital of Kinshasha, was actually carried out by the UNITA
forces fighting against the advances of the ADFL.

When
Kabila's ADFL soldiers marched into Kinshasha largely unopposed on May
17, 1997, it represented a culmination of political struggle against
neo-colonialism in Africa spanning a thirty-seven year period.

Nonetheless,
the alliance that brought about the second liberation of Congo was soon
burst assunder. The Rwandan and Ugandan governments, at the aegis of
the U.S. administration of Bill Clinton, sought to dictate the
political policies of the renamed Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
When Kabila ordered the removal of Rwandan and Ugandan military forces
from the eastern region of the country, both of these U.S.-backed
regimes declared war on Kinshasha and sought to replace Kabila.

The
Congolese Democratic Rally (RCD) was formed as a front for Uganda and
Rwanda. However, the progressive governments of Angola, Zimbabwe and
Namibia, under the auspices of the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) came to the defense of the DRC government and beat
back the intervention. This war lasted between 1998-2003 and resulted
in the deaths of millions of Congolese.

When a negotiated
settlement was reached, a government of national unity was formed. This
agreement broke down after elections were held in 2006. Laurent Kabila
was assassinated in 2001 leaving the reigns of government to his son
Joseph. Joseph Kabila won the elections of 2006.

Unfortunately,
two other guerrilla groups were formed in the north and in the east.
Laurent Nkunda's CNDP has launched attacks against civilian areas in
North Kivu since August of 2008. This new situation has set the stage
for the intervention of the European Union, which is still
contemplating a military invasion and occupation of the mineral rich
eastern region of the DRC.

The U.S. Role in the Background to the Somalian Crisis

It
is not an oversimplification to state that the problems that have
occured since the formation of the Republic of Somalia in 1960, must be
viewed within the context of the overall post-colonial crisis of the
nation-state in Africa. A brief cursory overview of the degree and
character of political stabiliy and economic stagnation so prevalent in
strucutral deficiencies cannot merely be analyzed in a case by case
fashion, but must be approached from the standpoint of regional and
continental patterns of development.

In looking at the
situations of three neigboring countries to Somalia: Sudan, Ethiopia
and Kenya, we can see that the similarities of agricultural deficits,
micro-nationality and border conflicts, foreign debts and the
exigencies of political democratization has created internal tensions
and dislocations which requires a histtorical materialist model of
analysis.

The historical materialist model of analysis
acknowledges the particular characteristics of development within the
various Africans states. However, it recognizes that the history of the
impact of slavery, colonialism and imperialism and neo-colonialism has
created a broad spectrum of structural problems that are present and
recurrent within all African countries in the contemporary neo-colonial
period.

In viewing modern-day Somalia, the legacy of colonial
rule that was imposed in the nineteenth century must be considered in
any evaluation of the country's performance as a post-independence
state since 1960. The fact that the Somali people, composed of a myriad
of clans and sub-clans, were divided by four colonial states and one
feudel state, illustrates the total disregard by the imperialists of
the national character of indigenous peoples.

Complicating the
Somali question is also the role of feudal Ethiopia which continued to
expand its influence along with the European powers in the region
during the latter 19th century. However, being encircled by European
imperialism eventually lead to an Italian fascist invasion of Ethiopia
in 1936 under Mussolini.

During the colonial period, even
after the defeat of fascist Italy in 1941, Somalia was designated as a
protectorate by the United Nations of this former dictatorial regime.
By the 1950s, the entire East African coast from Somalia to Mozambique
was the center of intense oil exploration.

In the northern
part of Somalia, which was colonized by the British, the
Standard-Vacuum Oil and Conorado companies were involved in this
extended search for oil. In the Italian controlled section of Somalia,
the companies engaged in the exploration during the pre-independence
period of the 1950s, were Conorado and Sinclair, who controlled an
equal share of a 57 million acre concession.

As a result of
the independence struggle against the colonialism of Britain and the
United Nations imposed protectorate status under Italy during the
1950s, the country gained its independence in 1960, joining both the
Italian and British controlled sections of the Somali territory.

The
leading organization in the independence movement during the post-World
War II period was the Somali Youth League (SYL), which was based in the
southern region of the country then under the Italian protectorate
regime. When the SYL won the overwhelming majority of seats in the
March 1959 elections for the legislative assembly, they worked toward
the formation of a coalition government with the British controlled
region of the north. With the establishment of the independent Somali
Republic on July 1, 1960, the British and Italian colonies were merged
under the leadership of Prime Minister Dr. Abdirashid Ali Shirmake.

After
the national elections of 1964, serious splits developed within the
ranks of the SYL and its allies in the coalition government. After the
removal of the first Prime Minister, Dr. Shirmake, by Abdirazak Haji
Hussein in 1964, Shirmake ran again in 1967 and was elected president,
forming a new government with Mohammed Haji Ibrahim Egal, a northern
based politician from the Isaq clan as prime minister.

By
1969, the divisiveness of the political class became quite intense
leading to a splintering of forces in that year's elections. However,
Egal maintained his position after the elections amid allegations of
manipulating the voting and selection process. Later in October,
Shirmarke was assassinated in a factional dispute, leading to the
military coup d'etat under the leadership of Mohammed Siad Barre.

Declaring
itself the Somali Democratic Republic, the regime of Barre moved to
institute its own brand of scientific socialism. Large scale
nationalization of industries took place along with diplomatic
overtures to the Soviet Union and other socialist-oriented states.

The
former British military bases at Berbera in the north were the scene of
intense training of Somali military forces by Soviet technicians.
However, this era of friendship and cooperation with the USSR did not
last long, particularly after the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974 and the
subsequent events leading to the consolidation of power by the military
officer, Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1977.

Having never
given up on the idea of a "Greater Somalia", encompassing not only the
present borders of the country but including the population groups of
this nationality that were scattered throughout Ethiopia, Kenya and
Djibouti, the regime of Siad Barre backed a military secessionist
movement in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia in 1977-78.

Later on
with the withdrawal of the U.S. military presence in Ethiopia, the USSR
moved swiftly to fill in the vacuum left by the American expulsion.
When the Soviets were asked to vacate their 6,000 technicians from
Somalia, full scale war erupted in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia,
prompting the evacuation of Ethiopian military forces from the area.

However,
with the assistance of the Soviet Union's military advisors and direct
Cuban troops involvement in the fighting, the Western Somali Liberation
Front (WSLF) insurgents were quickly defeated and forced to retreat
into Somalia proper. This conflict largely resulted from the strategic
miscalculations of Siad Barre, who believed the US promises of military
assistance for the Ogaden war in order to counter Soviet and Cuban
influence in the Horn of Africa.

What Barre did not understand
was the phenomena of the post-Vietnam syndrome in the American
political psyche after 1975. Jimmy Carter's presidency was not willing
to risk direct U.S. military involvement in Ethiopia where American
combat troops would be deployed and possibly face large-scale
casualties.

The conflict in the Ogaden region marked the
beginning of increased instability in Somalia. Famine became widespread
during the early 1980s, which prompted relief efforts and an increased
U.S. media focus on the enormous problems created by the dislocation of
civilians resulting from political unrest and monumental food deficits.
At the same time, the level of American military assistance to the
country increased, bringing about the material basis for a highly
regimented and repressive state.

By the late 1980s, various
regions of the country became highly disaffected from the central
government. The intensification of military activities in the north by
the Somali National Movement (SNM) against the Barre regime between
1988-1991 created a serious crisis for the government.

In
1990, the three major opposition groups the SNM, the United Somali
Congress (USC) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), announced that
they would coordinate their activities designed to overthrow the Barre
government. In January of 1991, Barre fled the country in the face of
military advances by the USC and others in the capital Mogadishu as
well as other regions of the country.

The Challenge of National Unity in Somalia

Even
after the overthrow of Siad Barre in 1991, the question of national
reconciliation and unity in Somalia has remained elusive. The total
collapse of the state under Barre and the failure to stabilize a
coalition government in Mogadishu during 1991-1992, lead to widespread
factional fighting in various regions of the country.

This
internecine conflict created the conditions for famine in the country,
which provided the United States with a rationale for a large-scale
military invasion in December of 1992, under the guise of a United
Nations sponsored relief effort.

This "relief effort", called
"Operation Restore Hope", which was initially greeted with some degree
of acceptance by various political organizations in Somalia, soon
degenerated into a large-scale occupation reminiscent of the colonial
period in the nation's history. Somali youth were randomly beaten and
murdered by U.S., Italian, Pakistani and Canadian military forces.

Under
the leadership of the Somali National Alliance (SNA), headed by
Mohammed Farrah Aided, the people resisted the US-UN occupation
vigorously, resulting in thousands of casualties on the Somali side,
and several hundred among the occupying forces.

A major clash
on October 3, 1993, resulted in 18 officially reported deaths of U.S.
soldiers and the capturing of an American helicopter pilot. This then
lead to mass opposition to the Clinton policy of continued occupation.
In response to increasing protest activity around the U.S. and the
world, Clinton announced an impending withdrawal from Somalia, which
occured in 1994.

However, despite the defeat of American
occupationist aims in the region in 1993, and the withdrawal of the UN
troops in 1994-95, the country has failed to overcome the factionalism
of political parties and the seccesion of the northern area, which was
formerly colonized by the United Kingdom. At least three different
factions have declared themselves as legitimate governments in Somalia,
including Somaliland and Puntland, despite the fact that no entity in
the international community has officially recognized any of these
self-proclaimed regimes.

Even though the United States was
defeated in Somalia during the early 1990s, in the aftermath of the
attacks on September 11, 2001, the atmosphere created by the Bush
administration and the corporate media, attempted to justify covert
operations against the country. During 2006, the Union of Islamic
Courts (UIC) began to consolidate its base of power in various regions
of Somalia. The fact that these efforts took place independent of U.S.
influence and direction, the Bush administration sought to undermine
the UIC.

Initially, the US imperialists attempted to
coordinate various political and social elements in the country to
attack the UIC. When this did not prove effective, the Bush
administration encouraged, financed and coordinated an Ethiopian
military invasion and occupation of the country beginning in December
of 2006.

Nonetheless, this U.S.-backed occupation was met with
fierce resistance. Two years later, by the end of 2008, the Ethiopians
had already withdrawn 10,000 out of 12,000 of its troops. Al-Shabab,
the youth wing of the UIC, had launched systematic attacks against the
occupationists in various regions of the country. This was coupled with
the continued hijacking of commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden by
Somalis.

Conclusion

Reviewing aspects of the
historical development of both the Democratic Republic of Congo and
Somalia provides concrete examples of how imperialism has prevented
African states from achieving genuine independence. During the colonial
era, the US was never a champion of the legitimate national liberation
movements on the continent.

As anti-imperialists it is
necessary to provide political support to all social and political
forces struggling against U.S. and other western efforts aimed at the
continued exploitation and oppression of the peoples of Africa. In both
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Somalia, the United States
administration is very much involved in campaigns to control the
political developments inside these countries and to preserve the
economic interests of the ruling class.
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Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire.