by Daniel Xiao Wang

Created on: January 26, 2008   Last Updated: January 29, 2008

Winston Churchill is quoted as saying that "countries do not have friends, they have interests." At the moment Ethiopia is of strategic interest to the United States, therefore the United States treats Ethiopia as a friend.

The American military sees Ethiopia as an ally in the war on terror, using Ethiopia as a staging ground to launch strikes into neighboring Somalia where the Islamic Courts Union, a group linked to al Qaeda, is based.

A border village, Gode, is instrumental to this strategy, providing easy access into Somalia. Unfortunately, the people of Gode have more in common with Somalia than Ethiopia.

According to Pulitzer award-winning journalist Zoe Alsop 90% of the people living in this region of Ethiopia can trace their ancestry back to Somalia. Rebel forces have risen to fight for greater autonomy from the Ethiopian government, and Ethiopia has responded with force.

Conditions were never good in the predominantly Somali parts of Ethiopia. Starvation, famine, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, high food prices and rampant unemployment are common. But now the government is being accused of burning villages closely aligned with the resistance force, raping and killing the population.

Sheik Moktar, the governor of Gode claims that if the citizens want to succeed it is their legal right; they will not be opposed in doing so. But still villages burn and people die, and the rebel forces seem to be more serious about succession than the government.

According to the State Department, the government of Ethiopia has a very poor human rights record. This includes:

Unlawful killings
Abuse and mistreatment of detainees
Poor prison conditions
Arbitrary arrest
Lack of privacy rights
Restriction on free press
Violence against women and children
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

The list goes on (www.state.gov). According to Nick Wadham,.government forces have burned villages and shot civilians, even forcibly moving people into large population centers as to keep a closer eye on them. Human Rights Watch says that 5,000 people have been displaced.

While the government commits atrocities in these regions the United States maintains solidarity with the Ethiopian government. Ethiopia is too much of a strategic interest not to.

To assist the local populace, and encourage good will, American forces have built wells, immunized cattle, provided medicine, and encouraged the building of infrastructure. The local government claims that every new building is burned to the ground by the rebel forces,

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