Somali opposition conference criticises US for backing Ethiopia

September 8, 2007 (ASMARA) — A conference of Somali opposition figures criticised the United States on Saturday for allowing regional power Ethiopia to keep troops in their homeland.

Critics of the Somali interim government and its Ethiopian military allies say Washington’s tacit blessing enabled Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to move thousands of soldiers into Somalia last year.

They helped drive an Islamist sharia courts movement out of Mogadishu at the New Year, and have been protecting the Somali government against insurgents since then.

“(Delegates) expressed their deep concern about the international community’s, especially the United States’, continuing silence and indifference to the Ethiopian occupation,” said a spokesman for the Somali opposition conference in Eritrea.

“There’s been an escalation of violence in Mogadishu,” Zakariya Mahamud Abdi added in a briefing for reporters in Asmara, predicting “all-out war” in Somalia could come soon.

Gun-fights and explosions rock Somalia’s coastal capital near-daily, with civilians bearing the brunt of casualties.

Ethiopia is Washington’s key counter-terrorism ally in the region, and analysts and security sources say U.S. military intelligence was crucial to its successful push against the Islamists at the end of 2006. Meles says he will withdraw his troops when a small African Union (AU) peacekeeping force gets near to its intended number of 8,000.

The Asmara talks have brought together a diverse mix of Somali opposition leaders, from senior Islamists of the courts’ movement, to dissident parliamentarians and a former deputy prime minister.

In a meeting expected to last another week, they are seeking to form an umbrella organisation to press for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops.

Spokesman Abdi said Western allegations that some opposing Somalia’s government have terrorism links were baseless.

“There are no terrorists in Somalia. But wrong policies by Western powers, especially the United States, could create havoc and might cause uncertain problems and conflict in the region,” Abdi said.

“The congress appealed to the international community to correct this course in Somalia,” he said.

Somalia has had no stable leadership since the 1991 ouster of military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, and has had 14 attempts at restoring central rule since then.

(Reuters)