Ethiopian troops are in Somalia – UN
July 26, 2006 (NAIROBI) — Ethiopian troops are in Somalia but in smaller numbers than the thousands some have estimated, a U.N. envoy said on Wednesday after a visit to the Horn of Africa nation intended to help avert a slide to war.
“I got the impression that some Ethiopians are in Somalia today,” Francois Lonseny Fall told Reuters.
But he said reports by some regional experts and witnesses that Ethiopia has sent 4,000-5,000 troops to curb newly powerful Islamists and protect the fragile Western-backed interim government of President Abdullahi Yusuf were “exaggerated”.
The U.N. envoy to Somalia — who shuttled on Tuesday between the government’s provincial seat Baidoa and the Islamists’ stronghold Mogadishu — said Addis Ababa was justifying sending troops by citing the involvement of rebels.
“The information we got yesterday was that the Ethiopians are justifying their presence inside Somalia for their own security,” he added at an interview in his Nairobi office.
“They’re saying that some Ethiopian dissidents are in the ranks of the Islamics and those are ready to fight Ethiopia.”
Fall declined to give a precise estimate of possible Ethiopian presence — the main factor holding up peace talks.
But “I don’t think it’s an important number”, he said.
“The indication we had is some are around Baidoa and some are in Wajid,” he added, referring to another southern town.
Ethiopia, which has intervened in Somalia in the past to contain radical Muslims, condemns the Islamists as being led by terrorists and bent on creating a hardline state.
ERITREAN INVOLVEMENT TOO?
The Islamists took Mogadishu from U.S.-backed warlords on June 5. Their rise has challenged the authority of Yusuf’s government, set up in 2004 in the 14th attempt to restore central rule to Somalia since the 1991 ousting of a dictator by warlords ushered in an era of anarchy.
As well as involving Ethiopia, any conflict could also drag in Eritrea, which the Islamists said for the first time on Tuesday was backing them.
But Fall said that during his time in Mogadishu, he saw no evidence of Eritrean backing. A U.N. report says Asmara has in the past armed the Islamists and experts believe they still give military aid to spite traditional foe Ethiopia.
“Some sources are indicating that Eritrea is helping the courts but I didn’t see the Eritreans there. I didn’t see any military, even courts’ militia,” Fall said, referring to the sharia courts out of which the Islamist movement grew.
Amid fears war in Somalia could drag in the region, Fall urged other nations to stay out. “I appeal to all the neighbours of Somalia to respect the maximum restraint … We don’t want to put more fuel in the Somalia conflict.”
With the Islamists undecided on whether to return to talks in Khartoum, because of the Ethiopia issue, Fall said talks were the only way back from the brink. “If we don’t want the military option, the best is to put all our weight on both sides to encourage them to go for dialogue,” he said.
Although both sides are ideologically far apart, foreign observers believe the only possible reconciliation is through an agreement between the government and Islamists to share power.
“We have information from other sources indicating that the courts are talking about power-sharing in Somalia,” Fall said.
When in Somalia, Fall met moderate Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, but the movement’s most powerful figure — hardliner Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys — stayed away.
“I prefer to deal now with the executive wing (Ahmed),” Fall said, when asked if he would meet Aweys, who is on a U.N. list of people believed linked to al Qaeda.”
(Reuters)