US urges East African countries not to intervene in Somali conflict

July 26, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — The United States Administration urged East African countries not to intervene in Somalia, after Somali officials charged that a plane carrying weapons from Eritrea landed in Islamist-held Mogadishu.

The US State Department also called on the Islamists and the fragile transitional government to press ahead with peace talks.

“We call for both the Islamic Courts Union and the Somalia transitional federal institutions to move forward and recommit to a process of dialogue and discussion to resolve the issues between them and to work to build and establish a legitimate government for that country,” said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman.

“It’s important that Somalia’s neighbors avoid any kind of actions that would prevent these groups from getting together and being able to talk through their differences,” Casey said.

“We certainly don’t want to see — whether it’s Eritrea or Ethiopia or Kazakhstan or any other country — engage or get involved in efforts to support any violence in that country,” he added.

Somali officials charged that a plane bearing the emblem of Kazakhstan that landed at Islamist-held Mogadishu’s airport Wednesday carried weapons from Eritrea, in violation of a UN embargo on arms sales to Somalia.

The Islamists, who control Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia, refused to comment on the cargo.

The Islamists are at loggerheads with the government over the deployment of Ethiopian troops to protect the fragile government.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) threatened to boycott Arab League-mediated peace talks in Khartoum with the government unless Ethiopian troops withdraw.

Ethiopia has repeatedly denied sending soldiers to defend the Somali government, which is based in the small town of Baidoa because it is powerless to move to the capital.

However, U.N. envoy Francois Lonseny Fall told Reuters on Wednesday that Ethiopian troops were indeed stationed in Baidoa, and another southern town, Wajid. But he dismissed reports of up to 5,000 troops as exaggerated.

Diplomats fear that Ethiopia, and its old foe Eritrea, are using Somalia as a proxy battleground to antagonize each other.

Somalia, on the Horn of Africa, is home to about 10 million people, and has been without a functioning central authority since strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.

(ST)