Somalia’s Islamic group cancels peace talks
Oct 29, 2006 (MOGADISHU) — Somalia’s Islamic group broke off peace talks with the transitional government Sunday, demanding that Ethiopian troops withdraw from the country.
The talks, scheduled to start Monday in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, were supposed to focus on power sharing between the two rivals amid fears a war could engulf the region. “We will not take part in the Khartoum talks unless Ethiopia withdraws its troops from Somalia,” Ibrahim Hassan Adow, the group’s foreign affairs chief, told The Associated Press.
Although an 18-strong Islamic delegation flew out to Sudan Sunday, Adow said they won’t engage with the interim administration until Ethiopian troops leave.
Ethiopia has admitted several hundred trainers are in Somalia, providing military expertise to its ally and internationally recognized government.
However, a confidential United Nations briefing note obtained by the Associated Press on Friday cites diplomatic sources estimating that “between 6,000-8,000 Ethiopians” are supporting the government and that “2,000 fully equipped Eritrean troops are now inside Somalia” backing the Islamic group known as the Council of Islamic Courts.
On Saturday Eritrea strongly denied it has deployed troops into Somalia.
Adow also insisted Kenya can’t chair the talks, the third round to take place between the two sides and which aim to avert a disastrous war in the Horn of Africa region – one of the World’s poorest. The Islamic group say Kenya is backing a proposed African peacekeeping mission to Somalia, which the group, known as the Council of Islamic Courts, oppose.
The transitional government has stated it will attend, but has repeatedly accused the courts of trying to undermine the talks.
Tension in the region is mounting with the transitional government and the Council of Islamic Courts girding for battle in recent weeks. The unresolved border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea could spill over into Somalia, where the Islamic courts have been growing in strength since seizing the capital, Mogadishu in June. They now control most of the south.
Ethiopia, with nearly half its 77 million people Muslim, fears a neighboring Islamic fundamentalist state.
“Both sides in the Somali conflict are reported to have major outside backers – the government supported by Ethiopia, Uganda and Yemen; the Islamic courts receiving aid from Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Gulf States,” the U.N. report added.
The top U.S. diplomat to Africa, Jendayi Frazer, on Oct. 19 accused Eritrea of using Somalia to open a second front against Ethiopia. Relations between the two sides are at a low with Frazer claiming Eritrea is shipping in weapons to the Islamic group, whom the U.S. believe are harboring al-Qaida terrorists.
Eritrea, meanwhile, claimed the U.S. is using its arch rival Ethiopia to carry out a war in the country. A statement posted on the information ministry’s Web site late Saturday said the U.N. troop claim was an attempt “to cover up the U.S. governments plans and the war it is carrying out in Somalia and the Horn of Africa in general” through the Ethiopian government.
Eritrea believes the U.S. has failed to pressure Ethiopia into handing over territories awarded to Eritrea in an international ruling after their border war ended in 2000.
In Washington on Thursday, U.S. State Dept. spokesman Sean McCormack called on both Ethiopia and Eritrea not to further aggravate the tense situation in Somalia.
Meanwhile around 100 pro-government fighters loyal to Somalia’s Defense Minister Col. Barre “Hirale” Aden Shire surrendered their weapons Saturday to Islamic militia, Islamic officials said. The pro-government fighters had lost a series of skirmishes against Islamic militia.
(AP)