2006年VOA标准英语-History of Bad Blood Fueling War Between Somali

By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi
22 December 2006

The leader of the Somalia's powerful Islamist movement, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, says his country is now in a state of war with neighboring Ethiopia, fueling international concerns that it may be too late to avert¹ a potentially catastrophic war in the Horn of Africa. From our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi, VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu looks at Ethiopia's pivotal role in the conflict.

 
The leader of the Supreme² Council of Islamic Courts, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys (21 Aug 2006)
When Sheikh Aweys declared on Thursday that all Somalis should join in what he called "a struggle against Ethiopia," he said he viewed Somalia's giant neighbor as the single biggest obstacle to uniting Somalia under an Islamic courts system, which he says would bring peace and stability to the long-suffering country.

The director of the Nelson Institute at James Madison University in the United States, J. Peter Pham, says in reality, what Aweys wants to do is to unite Somalia under a banner of Islamic fundamentalism and Ethiopia's military intervention³ in Somalia is giving Sheikh Aweys the ideal excuse to achieve his goal.

"In many respects, Ethiopia is the worst possible intervener in the Somali situation because of the history between the two peoples," he said. "A lot of the support that is engendered⁴ for the Islamist movement in Somalia right now is nationalistic support in face of what is perceived to be an Ethiopian invasion."

The history of Somalia and Ethiopia is marred⁵ by bad blood dating back to 1964, when Somalia first fought against Ethiopia to gain independence from Italy and redefine borders involving both countries.

Since then, they have fought two major wars and sponsored rebel groups to destabilize each other. After Somalia descended⁶ into political anarchy⁷ in 1991, Ethiopia sent its forces across the border a number of times, in support of factional leaders friendly to Addis Ababa.

Experts say Ethiopia has long sought a regime in Somalia that would be an ally rather than an enemy. Addis Ababa is said to have played a major role in the appointment of long-time Ethiopian ally Abdullahi Yusuf as the leader of Somalia's two-year old interim⁸ government, temporarily headquartered in the town of Baidoa.

But in June, the Islamists, led by Sheikh Aweys, defeated factional leaders in Mogadishu, who were members of the interim government. The Islamists then began rapidly consolidating⁹ their power through military force throughout southern Somalia.

 
Somali government troops patrol the streets of Baidoa, 12 Dec. 2006
A member of parliament in the interim government, Awad Ahmed Ashareh, says Ethiopia, which denies deploying¹⁰ as many as 20,000 combat troops in Somalia, felt it had no choice but to send reinforcements to protect Baidoa.

He said, "Ethiopia feels her opponents are now in Mogadishu and Ethiopia sees as legitimate¹¹ to pursue its enemy anywhere."

Ethiopia and interim President Yusuf has pursued Sheikh Aweys before, when in the early 1990s, the Islamist leader led a militant¹², anti-Ethiopian group called al-Itihaad al-Islamiya in the semiautonomous Somali region of Puntland.

Al-Itihaad was defeated and Aweys was forced to retreat to his home region in central Somalia. But Professor Pham says this time, defeating the radical¹³ cleric and his supporters could be far more difficult.

He said, "These are people, who in the 1990s, carried out terrorist attacks within Ethiopia, including the attempted assassination¹⁴ of a minister in Addis Ababa."

"So, there is a clear record of terrorism vis-à-vis Ethiopia and for what they lack in tactical experience, some of the foreign elements now coming into Somalia will bring that with them. So, it is a very clear danger that this may spiral into an insurgency-slash-terrorist campaigns that will engulf¹⁵ the region," he added.

Ethiopia and the United States say the Islamist movement is now under the control of an East Africa al-Qaida cell and believe at least three terrorists behind the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania are in Somalia.

But another U.S.-based analyst¹⁶, Professor Terrance Lyons at George Mason University, says Ethiopia is at the heart of another problem creating instability in Somalia, which the United States and the West must work to resolve quickly.

He said, "To imagine that the very dangerous situation in Somalia is primarily about al-Qaida is to misunderstand the predominantly local dynamics¹⁷ that drive the conflict."

"The thing that makes Somalia particularly explosive is the links between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict that is being played out by proxy¹⁸ in Somalia," he continued.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bitter two-year border war that ended in 2000, but the peace process has not led to easing of tensions between the two rivals.

In Somalia, experts and diplomats¹⁹ say Eritrea is trying to frustrate²⁰ Ethiopia backing the Islamists with weapons and as many as 2,000 Eritrean troops.

Like Addis Ababa, Asmara denies it has any combat troops in Somalia. But many experts say they believe it may be just a matter of time before the two sides drag in the rest of the region into a long and bloody²¹ conflict.

1 avert   

v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等)

参考例句：

• He managed to avert suspicion.他设法避嫌。
• I would do what I could to avert it.我会尽力去避免发生这种情况。

2 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

3 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

4 engendered   

v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The issue engendered controversy. 这个问题引起了争论。
• The meeting engendered several quarrels. 这次会议发生了几次争吵。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 marred   

adj. 被损毁, 污损的

参考例句：

• The game was marred by the behaviour of drunken fans. 喝醉了的球迷行为不轨，把比赛给搅了。
• Bad diction marred the effectiveness of his speech. 措词不当影响了他演说的效果。

6 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

7 anarchy   

n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• There would be anarchy if we had no police.要是没有警察，社会就会无法无天。
• The country was thrown into a state of anarchy.这国家那时一下子陷入无政府状态。

8 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

9 consolidating   

v.（使）巩固， （使）加强( consolidate的现在分词 )；（使）合并

参考例句：

• These measures are meant for consolidating the system of basic medical care. 这些举措旨在夯实基层医疗体系，让老百姓看大病不必出远门。 来自互联网
• We are consolidating the Chinese and English versions of our homepage. 我们将为您提供中英文版本一起的主页。 来自互联网

10 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。

11 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

12 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

13 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

14 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

15 engulf   

vt.吞没，吞食

参考例句：

• Floodwaters engulf a housing project in the Bajo Yuna community in central Dominican Republic.洪水吞没了多米尼加中部巴杰优那社区的一处在建的住房工程项目。
• If we are not strong enough to cover all the minds up,then they will engulf us,and we are in danger.如果我们不够坚强来抵挡大众的意念，就会有被他们吞没的危险。

16 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

17 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

18 proxy   

n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人

参考例句：

• You may appoint a proxy to vote for you.你可以委托他人代你投票。
• We enclose a form of proxy for use at the Annual General Meeting.我们附上委任年度大会代表的表格。

19 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 frustrate   

v.使失望；使沮丧；使厌烦

参考例句：

• But this didn't frustrate Einstein.He was content to go as far as he could.但这并没有使爱因斯坦灰心，他对能够更深入地研究而感到满意。
• They made their preparations to frustrate the conspiracy.他们作好准备挫败这个阴谋。

21 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。