Doo doo Dr Castro himself declared on March 15: The objective of the war was to liberate the occupied territory. We therefore think that the war between Ethiopia and Somali has finished
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doo doo Dr Castro himself declared on March 15: "The objective of the war was to liberate the occupied territory. We therefore think that the war between Ethiopia and Somali has finished." He added that at a secret meeting of Cuban officials with Somali and South Yemeni leaders in Aden in March 1977 [see also 2840 A] Somalia had promised not to invade Ethiopia but that it had nevertheless begun its aggression in June 1977. Details of the Soviet and other communist military involvement were reported from various sources. It was confirmed on Feb. 24 by Admiral Harold Shear, NATO Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces Southern Europe (based in Naples), that "large quantities" of arms and military equipment were being taken to Ethiopia in civil aircraft passing through Turkish airspace and in merchant vessels (via the Bosporus and the Suez Canal), while other Soviet material was sent to Ethiopia by sea from the Far East, and that some 20 Soviet warships were stationed in the Horn of Africa area. (In Turkey it was confirmed at the same time that despite Turkish warnings Soviet commercial aircraft believed to be carrying arms for Ethiopia had been overflying Turkey.) In the Belgrade daily Politika (quoted on March 23) it was stated that Soviet aid to Ethiopia had been worth $1,000 million; that some 15,000 Cuban soldiers were stationed in Ethiopia and were taking part in the fighting; that East German technicians were assembling Soviet jets in Addis Ababa; and that the strategist of the Ethiopian victory in the Ogaden had been General Petrov, who had organized the surprise landing of 70 airborne tanks behind the Somali lines. According to European diplomats in Nairobi (who had recently been in Ethiopia and who were quoted on March 24), Ethiopian Airlines aircraft had made 78 night-time flights between November 1977 and March 1978 to pick up Cuban troops from Luanda (Angola), overflying the Sudan, the Central African Empire and the Congo. Sr Isidoro Malmierca Peoli, the Cuban Foreign Minister, together with three senior Cuban officials, visited Addis Ababa from March 17 to 23. In a communique' issued on March 23 it was stated: "Cuba and Ethiopia agree that peace in the Horn of Africa can be established only when Somalia has publicly renounced its territorial claims on Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti and has put an end to its interference in the internal affairs of these countries." The communique also condemned the "reactionary and imperialist Arab regimes conspiring with Mogadishu in deliberate aggression against Ethiopia, and the sinister actions taken in the Horn of Africa and the area of the Red Sea by international imperialism and its allies who exacerbate ethnic and religious differences, and attempt to challenge the existing frontiers by force At the end of a visit to Moscow by Lieut.-Colonel Mengistu on April 4â6 it was stated in a communique' on April 7 that the USSR and Ethiopia wished to strengthen their "friendship and co-operation in the interests of their peoples as well as efforts for peace in Africa". Mr Moshe Dayan, the Israeli Foreign Minister, disclosed in an interview in Zurich on Feb. 6 that Israel had been selling arms to Ethiopia with which, he said, it had had co-operation "for years and years" and with which Israel wished to retain this good relationship. In Israel Mr Dayan's remark at first aroused little attention, although on Feb. 8 an official denial was issued in respect of an allegation made by Eritrean secessionists that Israeli experts were training the Ethiopian Army and that Israeli pilots had taken part in the bombing of Eritrean liberation forces' positions. The truth of Mr Dayan's statement was however, officially denied in Ethiopia, while the Ethiopian embassy in London stated on Feb. 14 that the minister's remark was "a deliberate and sinister act to isolate Ethiopia from the revolutionary and progressive Arab states" (hostile to Israel). On Feb. 19 Mr Yossi Sand, an opposition member of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament), stated on Israeli television that, shortly after Mr Dayan's remark, all Israeli advisers [see also page 28635 A] had been expelled from Ethiopia within 24 hours. After Mr Dayan had stated that the news of Israeli arms aid to Ethiopia had already been disclosed in the world's press before he had made his remark, Mr Menahem Begin, the Israeli Prime Minister, said on Feb. 17 that Mr Dayan's remark was "a human error and declared that no arms sales had in fact been made to Ethiopia for some time. Somalia's action in the Ogaden region had also caused apprehension in Kenya, to whose north-eastern Province the Somali regime had laid claim in earlier years but with which a peace agreement had been concluded in 1967. [see 22386 B] Kenya had concluded a mutual defence agreement with Ethiopia in 1963 [see 19809 D], but this agreement had not been invoked by Ethiopia after the start of the Somali action. On Dec. 1 Ethiopia had obtained permission from Kenya to use the port of Mombasa for the importation of vital supplies, to be conveyed to Addis Ababa by air, while Kenya was reported to have donated 10,000 tonnes of maize and also quantities of tea and of powdered milk to Ethiopia. Between December 1977 and February 1978 the Nairobi press frequently reported on clashes between Kenyan security forces and "Somalis armed with sophisticated weapons" in the North-Eastern Province. On Feb. 15 the Kenyan Air Force compelled an Egyptian aircraft carrying arms to Somalia to land at Nairobi airport, after three previous similar flights had been ignored by Kenya. However, on Feb. 17 the Egyptian aircraft was returned to Cairoâwith its cargo of Soviet-made armsâafter the Egyptian authorities had temporarily seized two Kenya Airways airliners and had forced a third one to land in Egypt. Following a remark made by the Shah of Iran on Jan. 1 that his country would not stand idly by if Somalia were invaded by Ethiopian forces with Soviet and Cuban backing, Dr Munyua Waiyaki, the Kenyan Foreign Minister, on Jan. 10 expressed his concern at this remark to Dr Ahmad Tavakoli, the Iranian ambassador in Nairobi, and stated later that Iran, not being an African country, had no right to interfere in African affairs. Mr Abbas Ali Khalatbari, the Iranian Foreign Minister, thereupon announced on Feb. 18 that his Government had decided to close its embassy in Nairobi and to recall its ambassador and his staff. While confirming the Shah's attitude in the event of an Ethiopian attack on Somalia, Mr Khalatbari denied that Iran had sent any supplies other than medical ones to the latter country. [For earlier developments in relations between Iran and Somalia, see page 28760.] Dr Waiyaki visited Ethiopia on March 29-April 2, after which he said that Kenya supported Ethiopia's four conditions for peace in the Horn of Africa [see above]. Although he had said earlier that the mutual defence agreement between the two countries, which was due to expire in July 1978, was to be renewed, no announcement was made to this effect, and Dr Waiyaki was reported to have said that in the event of war Kenya would have to be self-reliant. A Kenyan delegation led by Vice-President Arap Moi had talks with Mr James Callaghan, the British Prime Minister, and Dr David Owen (the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary) in London on March 6 and was reported to have asked Britain to speed up deliveries of weapons to Kenya. After talks held with Vice-President Moi in Washington President Carter announced on March 2 that the the United States would supply Kenya with a squadron of F-5 fighter aircraft. The importance attached by the Soviet Union to its involvement in the area was revealed by Mr V. Sofinsky, head of the press department of the USSR Foreign Ministry, who stated on Feb. 3: "The Horn of Africa is first and foremost of military, political and economic significance. The importance of the area lies in its location at the junction of the two continents of Asia and Africa. There are a lot of good seaports in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Moreover, there are sea-lanes which link oil-producing countries with America and Europe." President Sadat of Egypt, speaking to US senators during a visit to the United States on Feb. 7, warned them that the Soviet Union had taken over power in Ethiopia and could threaten Egypt's trade route through the Red Sea and also the supply of half of Egypt's water (reaching Egypt from Lake Tana, north-west of Addis Ababa, through the Blue Nile). (The Egyptian President also said before members of Congress that Egypt had already supplied weapons worth $30,000,000 to Somalia and was likely to send more, and that he would "not exclude the possibility" of sending Egyptian military personnel to Somalia. However, Mr Hodding Carter, spokesman for the US State Department, said on Feb. 8: "We feel that anything which would encourage the escalation of the fighting is not useful. We have made this clear to a number of parties.") The apprehension felt in Arab countries opposed to Soviet involvement in the area was also expressed by President Nemery of the Sudan, who sald on Feb. 13 that, in the absence of any reaction by the United States, the Soviet Union had "undertaken to take over Africa bit by bit"; that, although the Soviets would not allow the Ethiopians to conquer Somalia by force of arms, they would take it over by subversion; and that "when they have completed the occupation of the Horn of Africa they will be interested in the Sudan". Their first objective, however, he added, would be Kenya, as they were already engaged in underground activities by training Kenyans in the Soviet Union and in Ethiopia. On Feb. 24 the US attitude to the conflict was outlined in a statement made by Mr Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's Assistant for National security Affairs, who said that there were more than 10,000 Cubans in Ethiopia organized in two infantry brigades and one mechanized brigade; that the USSR had delivered about 400 tanks and some 50 MiGs to Ethiopia; that Ethiopia's military operations in the Harar area were being directed by a Soviet general; that this constituted "a flagrant foreign intervention in a purely internal African conflict"; that there was "no doubt that it is Somalia which has violated the Ethiopian frontier"; that the Somalis "must withdraw from the Ogaden"; and that the Soviets and the Cubans "must also leave". Tass, however, stated on Feb. 27 that the Soviet Union was providing assistance to the Ethiopian Government in rebuffing aggression by Somalia; that it supported an end to hostilities once Somali troops withdrew from Ethiopia; and that any other interpretation of Soviet aims was "premeditated distortion". For the question of "linking" the situation in the Horn of Africa with general East-West relations and in particular with the current SALT talks on strategic arms limitation. In Ethiopia the US Government was repeatedly accused of siding with Somalia in the Ogaden conflict. Thus Lieut. -Colonel Mengistu accused the United States on Jan. 30 of secretly supplying Somalia with arms in agreement with Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with such arms being allegedly sent from US bases in West Germany and Iran, and with arms also being bought in Western Europe or in the United States. These allegations were, however, immediately denied by Mr John Trattner, spokesman for the US State Department, who emphasized that the USA neither had supplied nor intended to supply any military equipment to Somalia and that material of US origin should not be furnished without US authorization [see also page 28760rsqb;. On Feb. 14 the Ethiopian head of state again accused the United States (this time together with Britain and West Germany) of supplying arms to Somalia and of planning to "subvert and destabilize" Ethiopia, adding that, if these countries continued their policies, "maintaining diplomatic relations with them would become totally meaningless". He also alleged that since committing its full forces to the invasion of Ethiopian territory in July 1977 Somalia had deployed "more than 70,000 troops, 250 tanks, 350 other armoured vehicles and over 40 aircraft" and had also fired missiles at the Red Sea port of Assab. However, after a US mission led by Mr David Aaron, US Deputy Assistant for National security Affairs, had visited Addis Ababa on Feb. 18â19 and had been told that Ethiopia would continue fighting until all Somali forces had been expelled from its territory, it was indicated in a White House statement on Feb. 21 that President Carter had, through Mr Aaron, received a personal assurance from Lieut.-Colonel Mengistu that Ethiopia's forces would not cross the Somali frontier and that the Ethiopian Government would soon agree to the appointment of a new US ambassador to Ethiopia. [The posts both of US ambassador in Addis Ababa and Ethiopian ambassador in Washington had been vacant for a considerable time; for appointment of Ethiopian ambassador to the United States, see page WARNING : convertartid() 'f 28635n01eth' is not a valid article reference 28635 .] During February 1978 the United States supplied Ethiopia with "non-lethal" equipment worth $1,000,000 and consisting of lorries, jeeps and vehicle spare partsâthis being the first consignment since the suspension of the US-Ethiopian defence agreement in 1977 [see page 28423], since when, the Ethiopian Government claimed, $40,000,000 worth of weapons and equipment ordered and paid for in May 1977 had remained undelivered. (Earlier, on Dec. 28, 1977, the USA was reported to have agreed to provide Ethiopia with $2,000,000 in aid for famine relief, to be used to buy 150 lorries.) In a statement by Captain Fikre Selassie Wodgeress, the secretary-general of the PMAC, on April 6, however, the Ethiopian Government declared: "Unless the Western powers, in particular the United States, Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany, are persuaded by public pressure at home to abandon their policy of bloodshed in Africa, it will become quite meaningless to maintain diplomatic relations with them⦠The US Government must stop its campaign against the Ethiopian people and revolution." Naval exercises held off the Horn of Africa early in April 1978 and involving five British frigates, two US destroyers and two French frigates, with four (British) Royal Navy support ships, were condemned as "provocative and intimidating" by the Ethiopian Government, while Pravda on April 6 denounced them as NATO exercises which demonstrated that "Western military circles" had "not abandoned attempts at bringing pressure to bear on Ethiopia and at inventing new pretexts for interference in the Horn of Africa". A repeated demand by Mr Vance for the withdrawal of Somali forces from Ethiopian territory was rejected by President Siyad Barreh on Feb. 13, when the President declared that his people were ready "to the last man" to defend territory inhabited by Somalis (which, he said, included the Ogaden area), and that Western policy as dictated by the USA was playing into the hands of the Soviet Union. The President was, however, at the same time reported to have taken up contact not only with the UN security Council and the OAU but also directly with the Soviet Union. Despite the expulsion of Soviet personnel from Somalia in November 1977 the Somali Government had not broken off its diplomatic relations with the USSR, and it was later reported that during a visit to Mogadishu on Feb. 20â22 Signor Gianni Giadresco, a senior official of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), had delivered to President Siyad Barreh messages from the Soviet Union and also from Signor Enrico Berlinguer the secretary of the PCI, to the effect that the Soviet Union wanted a negotiated settlement of the conflict and would respect Somalia's frontier. The Somali President was said to have replied that he would continue to maintain his country's diplomatic relations with the USSR. Discussions with the Somali Government on US aid took place during a visit to Mogadishu on March 19â23 by Mr Richard Moose, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Mr Paul Henze, a member of the US National security Council's staff, when Mr Moose was reported to have made it clear that US military aid would be dependent on Somalia renouncing its traditional claims to territory in Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. A new agreement signed by Mr Moose and Mr Muhammad Yusuf Weyrah, the Somali Minister of Finance, on March 19 provided for the supply of food by the USA worth $7,000,000 over the next six months, with repayment to be spread over 40 years. (Recent US aid had been limited to a consignment of 100,000 tonnes of food which had arrived in Mogadishu on Jan. 31, 1978.) In Ethiopia it was officially claimed on March 19 that the United States was "manoeuvring world public opinion to pave the way for arming the Mogadishu regime which continues to pursue a policy of expansionism". President Siyad Barreh repeatedly appealed to other countries, in particular in the Arab world, to come to Somalia's aid in order to avert an Ethiopian invasion of his country. Between December 1977 and March 1978 he personally visited most of the Arab countries likely to heed his appeal (calling on some of them more than once) and also Iran. During his visit to Tehran President Siyad Barreh said on Dec. 28 that he had asked the Shah to give a message to President Carter of the United States (who was due to visit Iran on Dec. 31âsee 28894 A) and added that he did not think that the "wait-and-see" position adopted by the United States on the Somali-Ethiopian conflict was a wise one. As stated above, the Shah himself said on Jan. 1 that, if Somali territory were violated, his Government would not stand idly by, and on Jan. 4 it was reported that Iran had promised Somalia military and development aid worth $300,000,000. The Shah's announcement was strongly criticized in a number of African countries, and the Organization of African Unity (OAU), in a press statement issued on Jan. 20, warned Iran against "meddling" in African affairs, saying: "Iran had better address herself to the question of finding a peaceful solution to the crisis in the Horn of Africa and assist the OAU in this task." The OAU also condemned Iran's continued association with South Africa which was alleged to receive "90 per cent of its oil supplies from Iran" [Notably since the Arab and African embargoes imposed in 1973âsee 26245 A; 26246 A]âa fact which did "not qualify [Iran] to play any role on the African continent". The Government of Saudi Arabia stated on Jan. 15 that in the event of an attack on the territorial integrity of Somalia it would also react. President Siyad Barreh made similar appeals for aid to Western countries, and in particular to the United States, but the official attitude of the Governments of these countries remained not to supply weapons to either side in the conflict. After President Siyad Barreh had, on Jan. 16, asked the ambassadors of France, West Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States to pass on to their governments his request for assistance by means of troops and arms for the defence of Somalia against an imminent attack from Ethiopia, the US State Department repeated on Jan. 17: "We will not contribute to a conflict by pouring gasoline on it.,' In Britain Dr Owen said in the House of Commons on Jan. 18 that Britain was supplying no arms to either Somalia or Ethiopia. He added that Britain would be prepared to increase its aid to Somalia and demonstrated its "wish to have friendship with the people and Government of Somalia" but that this did not mean that "we could underwrite it by supplying arms to support the action taken in Ogaden". Representatives of the five Western countries, meeting in Washington on Jan. 22, issued a statement saying that no lasting solution of the conflict could be found by force of arms; that negotiations were the only means by which the fighting could be brought to an end; and that they "reaffirmed their full support for the efforts of the OAU and its mediation commission" [see page 28634]. A Somali Government spokesman said on the same day that his Government had always maintained that the conflict could be solved peacefully and through the OAU and he called for non-interference by foreign forces and for their withdrawal. In unconfirmed reports it was alleged that Somalia had, since the expulsion of the Soviet and Cuban advisers in November 1977, received limited amounts of light arms and also of obsolete tanks and of other armoured vehicles from various sources (including Egypt), and some such arms of Western origin were captured by Ethiopian forces and placed on show by them. Mr Abdulkasim Salad Hassan, the then Somali Minister of Information and National Guidance, stated, however, on Feb. 9 that, contrary to Western press reports, Somalia had received no military aid from Western countries or from other anti-communist states such as Egypt, Iran or Saudi Arabia, although such aid had been pledged. At a press conference in Mogadishu on Feb. 21 President Siyad Barreh admitted that Somali troops were present in the Ogaden area in "insignificant numbers" (this being the first such acknowledgement); he added that the decision to send them to the front had been "postponed to avoid further complications" and that he had asked the Western powers to supply him with arms "equal in quantity and quality" to those of his opponents but that these requests had not yet been heard. Colonel Hussein Haji Ali Dualeh (39) defected from Somalia to Kenya in January 1978, having in September 1977 been recalled from his post as Somalia's ambassador in Nairobi after advocating the establishment of a joint Kenyan-Somali commission to avoid border incidents. He stated in Nairobi on Feb. 28 that a Somali Democratic Action Front (Solef) had been set up in Rome in 1977 by former Somali Army officers and officials with the aim of overthrowing the regime of President Siyad Barreh At the same time he appealed to Western powers not to supply arms to Somalia but to use their influence to stop the war. On March 20 a close collaborator of President Siyad Barreh was quoted as saying: "From this war we have learnt the lesson that second-rank powers have no influence on the decisions of the two super-powers and that in future we shall have to rely above all on ourselves." Under agreements signed in Bonn on Jan. 12 and confirmed in Mogadishu on Jan. 18, the West German Government granted Somalia an unconditional credit of DM 25,000,000 and also a supplementary credit of DM 15,000,000 (for the resettlement of nomads)âboth together equal to over £10,000,000 or nearly US $20,000,000. During the negotiations Frau Marie Schlei, then West German Minister for Economic Co-operation, had indicated on Jan. 21 that the first of these credits might possibly be used for the purchase of arms by Somalia, but Herr Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the Foreign Minister, pointed out on Jan. 23 that in the preamble to the relevant agreement it was expressly stated that the West German aid was destined exclusively for Somalia's economic and social development, and the Somali embassy in Bonn stated that the Somali Government had no intention of using these credits for arms purchases. (These West German credits had been agreed after the Somali Government's co-operation in allowing German border police to take action against terrorists holding a Lufthansa airliner at Mogadishu airport on Oct. 17â18, 1977 [see pages 28918]â20.) The West German ambassador in Addis Ababa, Dr Johann Christian Lankes, was expelled by Ethiopia on Jan. 22. However, Major Dawit Wolde Ghiorgis, the Ethiopian Deputy Foreign Minister, said in Rome on Jan. 23 that the expulsion of Dr Lankes was not a reprisal for West Germany's aid to Somalia but was due to his "personal conduct", as he had sent his Government "biased reports" on the situation in the Ogaden area. (Earlier, on Jan. 9, 1978, the Ethiopian Government had asked West Germany to withdraw its military attache' and his staff, as there was no military co-operation between the two countries. At the same time the German school in Addis Ababa had been closed.) Directory: group -> tomzgroup -> pmwiki -> uploads uploads -> March 27, 1968 Israel and the Arabs Israeli Raid in Jordan uploads -> The Ghana-Guinea Dispute uploads -> Abd al-Hamid, M. K. (1964). Ma`rakat Sina wa-Qanat al-Suways [The Sinai and Suez Canal Attacks] uploads -> June 21, 1967 Middle East Crisis: 5-Point Johnson Peace Plan uploads -> March 05, 1969 Middle East: Jerusalem Bomb Blast uploads -> New Constitution in Force. 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