Kenya hands 34 militiamen to Somali government
Jan 21, 2007 (MOGADISHU) — Kenya has handed 34 Islamic militiamen to Somalia’s transitional government, the Somali government spokesman said Sunday, adding that some of them may be senior leaders of the country’s Islamic movement.
Kenya flew the militiamen to Somalia under armed guard on Saturday, the same day Somalia’s fledgeling government received a boost when the last major warlord turned over his weapons and militia.
Kenyan border patrols arrested the men in the past few weeks after Somalia’s western neighbor closed its border, said Abdirahman Dinari, the government spokesman. He said that the government is investigating the identities of the men and will soon make the details public.
The transitional government, however, is faced a renewed threat from Islamic militants, who took credit for a string of recent guerrilla attacks and promised to continue fighting until the government agrees to talks.
A leader in Somalia’s Council of Islamic Courts said Saturday that his group was responsible for violence including a mortar attack on the presidential palace late Friday and an ambush on an Ethiopian convoy early Saturday.
“This is a new uprising by the Somali people,” said Ahmed Qare, deputy chairman of the council. “The only solution can be reconciliation and talks between the transitional federal government and the Islamic courts.”
The internationally recognized government _ with key military backing from Ethiopia _ had managed to drive the Islamic movement out of Mogadishu and much of the rest of southern Somalia. But Islamic leaders have repeatedly threatened a guerrilla war as long as Ethiopian troops remain in Somalia to support the government.
The United States and the European Union have called on the government to hold broad-based peace talks to promote reconciliation, but so far only clan leaders and warlords have been involved, while religious leaders have been excluded.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991. The transitional federal government is the 14th attempt to restore law and order since warlords divided the country into warring fiefdoms.
On Saturday, one of the most feared warlords in Somalia, Mohamed Dheere, gave the government army chief 23 trucks mounted with heavy weapons and ordered 220 of his fighters to report for retraining at government camps. The handover took place during a ceremony in Dheere’s stronghold of Jowhar, 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Mogadishu, said Dinari on Saturday.
Unidentified gunmen fired light machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at an Ethiopian convoy in the capital, Mogadishu, Saturday morning, but missed. The Ethiopian troops responded with heavy weapons, killing four bystanders, witnesses and medical officials said. Three other people were wounded.
Late Friday, attackers fired three mortars into the presidential compound and then engaged guards in a 30-minute fire fight, residents living nearby said. Ethiopian and government troops riding tanks and heavily armed trucks rolled out of the compound and immediately sealed off the area. There were no reports of casualties.
The government has invited African peacekeepers to help provide security in Somalia, but they are unlikely to come if fighting continues. African Union officials approved an 8,000-peacekeeper mission on Friday.
(AP)