Ethiopia says has no troops in Somalia
June 13, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) – Ethiopian government strongly denied reports by local residents about incursions at two different regions by its soldiers inside the troubled country.
Residents in Galgadud region north of the capital said on Friday that heavily-armed Ethiopian troops arrived in Balanbale, a town controlled by pro-government forces.
Ethiopia accused on Saturday the Somali Islamists rebels of fabricating these reports. It also said the rebels try to draw the sympathy and the support of the local population as they are fighting to overthrow the international backed government led by President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.
“Ethiopia is defending its border. We have no intention of going back into Somalia. When we decide to enter Somalia we will tell the world that we have decided to enter based on our national interest,” said the Ethiopian minister of Information Bereket Simon.
“We think the reason (for the reports) is that the extremists are losing ground and feel they can mobilise people by presenting Ethiopian interventions to the public,” he further said.
Ethiopian troops invaded their troubled neighbor in 2006 to support the transitional government and dislodged the Islamic courts from the capital. However, Addis Ababa withdrawn its troops to encourage a national reconciliation process engaged by the UN.
The Ethiopian troops were deeply unpopular during their two-year intervention and helped rally support for the insurgency as it became a nationalist campaign to oust the foreign invaders.
Last week, Bereket admitted there had been small ‘reconnaissance missions’ by Ethiopian troops across the border in an area controlled by the extremist group Al-Shebab. But today he rejected news reports that troops full of heavily-armed troops had occupied a town in central Somalia.
(ST)
Jabeessa
Ethiopia says has no troops in Somalia
We heard these series of denials about incursion of Ethiopian troops into chaotic somalia even during last war with Islamists in that land. This means it is not new for us, the people of Ethiopia.
People say what they see. If indeed there is no single soldier of Ethiopia in Somalia, why will people lie? Ethiopia should re-think before going to that war ravaged country for nearly two decades. What benefit will we drive out of it? Have we audited all our debt with people of Ethiopia for prior entry? Have Ethiopian government told all the costs, both material and human during the previous war? Howmany soldiers we lost in that war? How much money we poured in it? All these questions should be properly answered to go into war with Somalians for the second time. And it is essential point to win the mind of people who will later back the government if the worst comes. The smoke signals the precense of fire in the jungle. What people say is not mere alegatoin as authorities say, but sign of precense of the troop in that land. Let us think and speak truth. Why always denial???