Somalia government calls on Islamic forces to surrender
Dec 26, 2006 (MOGADISHU) — Somalia’s government, fortified by Ethiopian troops, called on a rival Islamic movement to surrender on Tuesday and promised them amnesty after their attempt to take control of the country, a spokesman said.
Government and Ethiopian troops will not persecute Islamists for their beliefs, if they lay down their weapons and stop opposing the internationally-backed government, said Abdirahman Dinari, the government spokesman.
“We call for the Islamic courts militia to surrender to the government before they are punished by the government,” Dinari said from Baidoa, the seat of the government in central Somalia.
Islamic fighters were in a tactical retreat Tuesday, said Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, leader of the Council of Islamic Courts’ executive body. Government and Ethiopian troops advanced on three fronts in a decisive turnaround in the battle for control of Somalia.
The African Union, Arab League and a regional group known as IGAD, were scheduled to take up Somalia at meeting on Wednesday designed to resume the peace process.
But Ahmed rejected any suggestion of resuming peace talks and appeared unbowed by his group’s losses.
“We have asked our troops to withdraw from some areas,” he said. “The war is entering a new phase. We will fight Ethiopia for a long, long time and we expect the war to go everyplace.”
Ahmed declined to explain his comments in greater detail, but some Islamic leaders have threatened a guerrilla war, including suicide bombings in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
Islamic troops withdrew more than 80 kilometers to the southeast from Daynuney, a town just south of Baidoa. The retreat along the western front follows the bombing by Ethiopian jets of the country’s two main international airports.
Advancing government and Ethiopian troops captured Bur Haqaba, one of the Islamists’ main bases after it was abandoned early Tuesday.
“We woke up from our sleep this morning and the town was empty of troops, not a single Islamic fighter,” Ibrahim Mohamed Aden, a resident of Bur Haqaba said.
Islamic fighters were also reportedly retreating on two other fronts. On the southern front, government troops captured Dinsor, Dinari said.
On the northern front, government and Ethiopian troops entered the town of Bulo Barde, where just two weeks ago an Islamic cleric said anyone who did not pray five times a day would be executed. Government and Ethiopian troops were headed for Jowhar, 90 kilometers north of Mogadishu, after driving Islamic troops from Bandiradley, Adadow and Galinsor.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced on Saturday that he had sent troops into Somalia to fight international terrorists, defend Ethiopian interests and prop up the besieged U.N.-backed government, which only has a very small military force.
But Meles has said he does not intend to keep his forces in Somalia for long, perhaps only a few weeks. He has told visiting dignitaries in Addis Ababa that his goal is to severely damage the courts’ military capabilities, take away their sense of invincibility and allow both sides to return to peace talks on even footing.
Meles said he would not send troops into Mogadishu, but instead encircle the city to contain the Islamic forces.
The Islamic group, which wants to rule the country by the Quran, has been a source of grave concern by largely Christian Ethiopia. Since June, the group has seized control of the capital and much of southern Somalia.
No reliable casualty reports were immediately available. Both sides have claimed to have killed hundreds of their enemy, but independent observers were not given access to the battlefield.
The Arab League, which has mediated several rounds of talks between the Somali government and the Islamists, called on Monday for all parties involved to “immediately hold a comprehensive cease-fire.”
Many Somalis are enraged by the idea of Ethiopian involvement here because the countries have fought two wars over their disputed border in the past 45 years. Islamic leaders have repeatedly said they want to incorporate ethnic Somalis living in eastern Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya and Djibouti into a Greater Somalia.
The Islamic group’s often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan’s Taliban regime, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring Osama bin Laden. The U.S. government says four al-Qaida leaders, believed to be behind the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, have become leaders in the Islamic militia.
Experts fear the conflict in Somalia could engulf the already volatile Horn of Africa. A recent U.N. report said 10 countries have been supplying arms and equipment to both sides of the conflict and using Somalia as a proxy battlefield.
Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into chaos.
(AP)