Somalia: Ethiopian bodies seen in Idale town

Mohamed Abdi Farah
(SomaliNet) The Islamic Courts Union fighters have taken full control of Idale town near Baidoa city later today after they defeated the rival Ethiopian troops as independent journalists at scene confirmed. Sources say that the Islamists pushed the Ethiopians back after several hours of gun battle, which caused casualties on both sides. The Ethiopians retreated back.
A team of journalists who later today reached Idale town, the zone of today’s clashes reported that they have seen and taken photo shots of dozens of dead Ethiopian soldiers laid on ground. Islamic officials here in Mogadishu claimed that their fighters are advancing towards Baidoa city and captured the main defense lines of Ethiopians troops. The government officials in Baidoa denied the Islamist claim as rumor and cheap propaganda. The officials said they still control Idale town and their forces are fighting with what they called ‘the terrorist-backed Islamist militia’ who are on the offensive to Baidoa, the seat of the transitional federal government in southwest of Somalia.
The ICU repeated its call on foreign Jihadists to join the war with Ethiopia if the world does not break the silence and told the Ethiopians to quit Somalia as soon as possible. Islamist leaders accused Addis Ababa of willing to occupy Somalia territory and vowed to die for the defense of the land till the end of their last one.
SomaliNet

Somalia Militia Seeks Foreign Fighters

Somalia Militia Seeks Foreign Fighters
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
12.23.06
Islamic militants who want to govern Somalia by the Quran urged foreign Muslims on Saturday to join their war with Ethiopian troops, after four days of heavy fighting in this volatile nation that threatens to escalate into a regional conflict.
"Muslims are brothers and help each other. We have a right to call our brothers and sisters to help us in this holy war," said Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde, national security chairman for the Council of Islamic Courts, which controls much of southern Somalia.
The Islamic group has vowed to drive out troops from neighboring Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation that is giving military support to Somalia's U.N.-backed interim government. Ethiopia denies its troops are fighting, saying it has sent only military trainers.
In Kismayo, a seaport captured from the government by Islamic militiamen in September, people reported seeing several foreign Arab fighters disembarking from ships this week.
Fighting that killed hundreds of people in recent days has intensified worries about a major conflict engulfing the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia has one of the largest armies in the region and its bitter rival, Eritrea, is supporting the Islamic militia.
Instability in the region has allowed Islamic extremists to gain a foothold, U.S. officials have warned while charging that leaders of the Islamic militia in Somalia provide refuge for al-Qaida members.
Ibrahim Hassan Adow, foreign affairs chief for the Islamic council, said the group will not negotiate with the government any more because it is the "puppet of another foreign country." He denounced the United States, saying Washington should be pushing Ethiopia to withdraw its troops.
The interim prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, vowed Saturday that his 2-year-old government would "defend the people it is responsible for and Somali sovereignty." He said the Islamic fighters should return to negotiations that were being mediated by the Arab League.
"They will be responsible for any consequences that may result from rejecting our call," Gedi said.
The Arab League expressed deep concern Saturday over the conflict, calling on both sides, "especially the Islamic courts, to seek dialogue in resolving the dispute." Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, also urged an end to fighting, saying Somalis are suffering from "this irresponsible armed confrontation."
Intense fighting between the Islamic militia and supporters of the interim government broke out Tuesday in several places.
Sporadic gunfire and shelling were heard Friday around Baidoa, the government's only stronghold. Combat there appeared to have tapered off, but four Ethiopian attack helicopters and about 20 tanks were seen headed for the battle zone, witnesses and a government official said.
Thousands of Somalis have fled their homes during fighting set off when Islamic fighters advanced on Baidoa, about 140 miles northwest of Mogadishu, which served as Somalia's national capital until warlords toppled a longtime dictator in 1991 and plunged the country into chaos.
"Special forces who are highly trained in guerrilla warfare are now ready to attack Ethiopians, wherever they are in Somalia," Sheik Ibrahim Shukri Abuu-Zeynab, a spokesman for the Islamic movement, told The Associated Press.
He also said the Islamists late Friday peacefully captured the Ethiopian border town of Tiyeglow, which is believed to be a main entry point for troops from the neighboring nation. There was no immediate confirmation of the claim.
Officials of the interim Somali government claimed more than 600 Islamic fighters had been killed the previous four days. Islamic militiamen said they killed around 400 Ethiopians and government fighters. Neither claim could be independently confirmed.

Associated Press writers Salad Duhul and Mohamed Sheik Nor contributed to this report.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press.

Islamic Courts called on foreign Muslims to fight Ethiopia

Al-Jazeera
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2006
13:13 MECCA TIME, 10:13 GMT


Islamic Courts seek to expand war

A Somali Islamic Courts defence chief has for the first time called on foreign Muslim fighters to join his movement's war against Ethiopia.
Photo: AP Inda'ade said his group was open to anyone who can help remove the enemy from Somalia


"We're saying our country is open to Muslims worldwide. Let them fight in Somalia and wage jihad, and God willing, attack Addis Ababa," Yusuf Mohamed Siad, known as Inda'ade, said.

"We want anyone who can help remove the enemy to come in," he told a news conference in the Mogadishu, the Somali capital and an Islamic Courts stronghold.


Special Section: Somalia


Ethiopia said the call for fighters proved the "extremism" of the movement Addis Ababa accuses of being run by al-Qaeda linked fighters.

"If wishes were horses, the extremists in the Islamic Courts Union would have attacked Addis Ababa by now," Solomon Abede, a foreign ministry spokesman, said.

"Their declaration appealing to foreign Muslim fighters to help in war against Ethiopia proves their extremist behaviour."

Guerrilla warfare

Inda'ade made the call for foreign fighters after four days of clashes between Islamic opposition forces and pro-government troops.

Dozens have been killed in the fighting, with hundreds more wounded.

Ali Mohamed Gedi, prime minister in Somalia's largely powerless transitional government, said that foreign "terrorists" were already taking part in the fighting.

"Four thousand foreign fighters have participated in recent fighting around Dinsoor district and some of them have been killed," Gedi said.

"Special forces who are highly trained in guerrilla warfare are now ready to attack Ethiopians, wherever they are in Somalia"

Sheik Ibrahim Shukri Abuu-Zeynab, a spokesman for the Islamic Courts

Tension across Horn of Africa
Also on Saturday, the Islamic Courts said it has trained special forces to carry out guerrilla warfare against Ethiopian troops supporting the UN-backed government.

"Special forces who are highly trained in guerrilla warfare are now ready to attack Ethiopians, wherever they are in Somalia," said Sheik Ibrahim Shukri Abuu-Zeynab, a spokesman for the Islamic Courts.

Islamic forces opposed to Somalia's the transitional government have declared they want to bring the whole country under the rule of the Quran.

They have vowed to continue attacks to drive out troops from neighbouring Ethiopia, which is providing military support to the government.

Ismael Mohamoud Hurreh, the Somali foreign minister, told Al Jazeera that government was prepared for war.

"We are facing a group of people who are very dangerous and very radical, and the government is definitely on a war footing," he said

The United States has also accused the Islamic opposition of drawing support from al-Qaeda. The Islamic Courts have denied such a charge.


Fighting

The most sustained combat in Somalia started late on Tuesday, the deadline the Islamic Courts had given Ethiopian troops protecting the government to leave the country or face war.

On Friday, officials said hundreds of people had been killed since Tuesday night.

Sporadic gunfire and shelling could be heard on Friday around Baidoa, the transitional government's only stronghold, but residents and officials said the fighting had subsided.

Thousands of Somali civilians fled their homes in Baidoa after fighting erupted around the town.

The clashes threaten a wider conflict in the region. Ethiopia, which has one of the largest armies in the region, and its rival Eritrea could use Somalia as the ground for a proxy war.

While Ethiopia backs the internationally recognised government, Eritrea backs the Islamic Courts.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Isaias Afewerke, the Eritrean president, denied reports that Eritrean forces are fighting alongside Islamic Courts fighters in Somalia. He said the reports were meant to justify what he called "Ethiopian occupation of Somalia."

"The Somalis do not need Eritrea to send 200 soldiers to protect them or strengthen their situation," Afewerki said. "We have asked many times about this, where is this Eritrean force in Somalia?"


UN response

In New York, Kofi Annan, UN secretary general, called on both sides to "cease the hostilities immediately and to resume the peace talks ... without delay and without any precondition" said his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, in a statement released late Friday.

He also voiced "grave concern" over reports of the involvement of "foreign forces ... and he implores all involved to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia."

The UN issued a statement in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Friday calling for an "immediate end" to the conflict.

The UN also said both sides were using increasing numbers of child soldiers. "This conflict will push the children of Somalia into further dire crisis," it said.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

History of Bad Blood Fueling War Between Somalia and Ethiopia

History of Bad Blood Fueling War Between Somalia and Ethiopia
By Alisha Ryu Nairobi22 December 2006
Ryu report (Real Audio) - Download 629K Listen to Ryu report (Real Audio)
The leader of the Somalia's powerful Islamist movement, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, says his country is now in a state of war with neighboring Ethiopia, fueling international concerns that it may be too late to avert a potentially catastrophic war in the Horn of Africa. From our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi, VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu looks at Ethiopia's pivotal role in the conflict.
The leader of the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys (21 Aug 2006)When Sheikh Aweys declared on Thursday that all Somalis should join in what he called "a struggle against Ethiopia," he said he viewed Somalia's giant neighbor as the single biggest obstacle to uniting Somalia under an Islamic courts system, which he says would bring peace and stability to the long-suffering country.
The director of the Nelson Institute at James Madison University in the United States, J. Peter Pham, says in reality, what Aweys wants to do is to unite Somalia under a banner of Islamic fundamentalism and Ethiopia's military intervention in Somalia is giving Sheikh Aweys the ideal excuse to achieve his goal.
"In many respects, Ethiopia is the worst possible intervener in the Somali situation because of the history between the two peoples," he said. "A lot of the support that is engendered for the Islamist movement in Somalia right now is nationalistic support in face of what is perceived to be an Ethiopian invasion."
The history of Somalia and Ethiopia is marred by bad blood dating back to 1964, when Somalia first fought against Ethiopia to gain independence from Italy and redefine borders involving both countries.
Since then, they have fought two major wars and sponsored rebel groups to destabilize each other. After Somalia descended into political anarchy in 1991, Ethiopia sent its forces across the border a number of times, in support of factional leaders friendly to Addis Ababa.
Experts say Ethiopia has long sought a regime in Somalia that would be an ally rather than an enemy. Addis Ababa is said to have played a major role in the appointment of long-time Ethiopian ally Abdullahi Yusuf as the leader of Somalia's two-year old interim government, temporarily headquartered in the town of Baidoa.
But in June, the Islamists, led by Sheikh Aweys, defeated factional leaders in Mogadishu, who were members of the interim government. The Islamists then began rapidly consolidating their power through military force throughout southern Somalia.
Somali government troops patrol the streets of Baidoa, 12 Dec. 2006A member of parliament in the interim government, Awad Ahmed Ashareh, says Ethiopia, which denies deploying as many as 20,000 combat troops in Somalia, felt it had no choice but to send reinforcements to protect Baidoa.
He said, "Ethiopia feels her opponents are now in Mogadishu and Ethiopia sees as legitimate to pursue its enemy anywhere."
Ethiopia and interim President Yusuf has pursued Sheikh Aweys before, when in the early 1990s, the Islamist leader led a militant, anti-Ethiopian group called al-Itihaad al-Islamiya in the semiautonomous Somali region of Puntland.
Al-Itihaad was defeated and Aweys was forced to retreat to his home region in central Somalia. But Professor Pham says this time, defeating the radical cleric and his supporters could be far more difficult.
He said, "These are people, who in the 1990s, carried out terrorist attacks within Ethiopia, including the attempted assassination of a minister in Addis Ababa."
"So, there is a clear record of terrorism vis-à-vis Ethiopia and for what they lack in tactical experience, some of the foreign elements now coming into Somalia will bring that with them. So, it is a very clear danger that this may spiral into an insurgency-slash-terrorist campaigns that will engulf the region," he added.
Ethiopia and the United States say the Islamist movement is now under the control of an East Africa al-Qaida cell and believe at least three terrorists behind the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania are in Somalia.
But another U.S.-based analyst, Professor Terrance Lyons at George Mason University, says Ethiopia is at the heart of another problem creating instability in Somalia, which the United States and the West must work to resolve quickly.
He said, "To imagine that the very dangerous situation in Somalia is primarily about al-Qaida is to misunderstand the predominantly local dynamics that drive the conflict."
"The thing that makes Somalia particularly explosive is the links between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict that is being played out by proxy in Somalia," he continued.
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bitter two-year border war that ended in 2000, but the peace process has not led to easing of tensions between the two rivals.
In Somalia, experts and diplomats say Eritrea is trying to frustrate Ethiopia backing the Islamists with weapons and as many as 2,000 Eritrean troops.
Like Addis Ababa, Asmara denies it has any combat troops in Somalia. But many experts say they believe it may be just a matter of time before the two sides drag in the rest of the region into a long and bloody conflict.
VOA News

Residents in Mogadishu say the Islamic Courts has intensified checks at major intersections (Al Jazeera)

Residents in Mogadishu say the Islamic Courts has intensified checks at major intersections (Al Jazeera)
Fighting between Islamic Courts fighters and Ethiopian forces in southern Somalia has resumed, Al Jazeera’s correspondent quoted the Islamic Courts as saying.Somalia’s interim government also said that clashes took place on Friday between its Ethiopian-backed forces and the Islamic Courts around Baidoa, the Somali government headquarters.
Ali Jama, the information minister, said most of the fighting was taking place in Edali and Dinsoor. More than 200 Islamic Courts fighters have been killed, he said."We are at war with Ethiopia, but not with the government," Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the Islamic Courts leader said on Thursday.Aweys' comments came hours after he called the fighting around the government's encircled stronghold, Baidoa, "a small incident".'Fighting set to continue'Both sides claimed to have killed hundreds. But there was no independent confirmation of casualties.The fighting started late on Tuesday, the deadline the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) had given Ethiopian troops protecting the government to leave the country or face war. "The fighting looks like it will continue," Ali Ahmed Jama, Somalia’s information minister said."There are a lot of casualties, especially on the side of the Islamic Courts because they were on the offensive while our troops were in defensive positions." Residents and a Somali government source said troops loyal to both sides also appeared to be moving north in what some feared could spell fresh fighting in the town of Galkaayo.Diplomatic efforts"These are baseless allegations which Aweys has been saying all along to mislead international public opinion,"Zemedhun Tekele, Ethiopian spokesperson Thursday's shelling seemed to scuttle the shuttle diplomacy by Louis Michel, a European Union aid, on a mission to push the two sides back to the bargaining table.Aweys, who denies US and UN allegations he is linked to al-Qaeda, blamed Ethiopia for starting the fight: "If we are attacked we are not going to sit back."Ethiopia remained officially silent on a declaration of war and again denied its combat troops were in Somalia, but has promised "to inform the world" if it decides to attack the SICC."These are baseless allegations which Aweys has been saying all along to mislead international public opinion," Zemedhun Tekele, the Ethiopian information ministry spokesperson, said.Diplomats said it may take days or weeks to decide whether the fighting is actually a war, given the traditionally irregular nature of Somali combat.One western diplomat described it as skirmishing that could be war "if it keeps coming".Another said: "It's hard to say. If it stops in a couple of days, I am not going to call it a war.
"Large of number of troopsMilitary experts say Ethiopia has sent 15,000-20,000 troops into Somalia, while Eritrea has sent about 2,000 to the SICC.
Asmara denies any involvement and Addis Ababa says it has only a few hundred military trainers in Somalia but has vowed to crush any attack against them. Witnesses in Baidoa said an Ethiopian military helicopter had flown out of the city on Thursday, and an unmarked C-130 airplane believed to be flying surveillance runs circled the dusty trading post that is the government's only safe ground.Residents in Mogadishu, seized by the SICC in June, said checks at all major intersections has intensified, with several "technicals" - heavily armed trucks - patrolling the streets in a sign of growing tension.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Somali fighting escalates as Ethiopia deploys tanks: residents

Somalia's Ethiopia-backed forces and Islamist fighters clashed near the seat of government in Baidoa for a second day, with Ethiopian tanks reportedly brought into battle and both sides claiming to inflict massive casualties.As Islamists called for war against Addis Ababa, witnesses saw Ethiopian tanks being deployed east and south of Baidoa, seat of the country's weak government about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of the capital. "I saw ten Ethiopian tanks inside (Baidoa) town and they were heading to Daynunay area," a flashpoint garrison town, about 30 kilometres to the east, Mohamed Sahal, a resident of Baidoa, told AFP.Earlier Abdullahi Mohamed, another resident, said he had seen an Ethiopian military helicopter land in Baidoa, collecting wounded soldiers from the airport.
Addis Ababa has been intervening on behalf of the government against the Islamist forces, which control the capital Mogadishu and much of the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.Earlier, Islamist chief Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys had rallied Somalis to join the war against Ethiopian forces, two days after a deadline the Islamist gave Ethiopian troops to pull out or face major attacks expired."All Somalis should join the war against Ethiopia," Aweys told HornAfrik radio.Thursday's flare-up came despite European Commission humanitarian chief Louis Michel saying the previous day that he had secured both sides' commitment to observe a truce and resume peace talks.
Commanders said rival forces were reinforcing Daynunay and a second outpost Idale, 60 kilometres south of Baidoa."The fighting in Idale area is intensifying ... There are a lot of reinforcements from both sides," government commander Ibrahim Batari told AFP."There are a lot bodies littered on the battle ground... No one can confirm the casualties at the moment because the fighting is very heavy," he added.Islamist commanders, meanwhile, vowed they would use all the weapons in their possession to tackle their rivals."I tell you that there are great losses in this fighting," said Islamist commander Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal."We are enforcing our side and they are reinforcing theirs too. We are getting information that Ethiopians have brought a lot of tanks into Baidoa for reinforcement," he added."We are not going to spare anything, we will use all the weapons that we have," Bilal told AFP.The fighting followed clashes on Wednesday, hours after the expiry of an Islamist ultimatum for Ethiopian forces to pull out or face major attacks.
The government claimed to have killed "hundreds" of rival fighters and wounded hundreds, while the Islamists said they had killed at least 70."Our mujahedeens have killed 70 soldiers ... the Islamic courts are winning the war against Ethiopian invasion," Sheikh Mohamoud Ibrahim Sulley, the secretary of the Islamists, told a press conference in Mogadishu.Both sides acknowledged heavy casualties, but there was no independent confirmation on the figures.Hundreds of terrified civilians continued fleeing from the frontline into safer areas."I have taken my family to Baidoa for safety, because we can hear heavy artillery shells in the area," said Adan Mursal, a resident of Daynunay, a flashpoint garrison town, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of Baidoa.
"No one slept all night long because of the fierce fighting," said Mursal, explaining the town was still under control of the government.The UN Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Somalia warned that further fighting would cut off the supply of aid for nearly a million people affected by recent flooding.
"Engaging in conflict at a time when a significant segment of the population is already struggling for survival is unacceptable," OCHA official Eric Laroche said in a statement.Somalia has lacked an effective administration since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and the two-year-old government has failed to exert control across the impoverished nation of 10 million people.

www.nst.com

"Somalia in a state of war"

"Somalia in a state of war"
21 Dec 2006
By: Sue Turton
The Islamist leaders of Mogadishu warn that they consider themselves at war now with Ethiopa.
Watch the report
Somalia is now in a state of war. That was the warning from Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys in Mogadishu as his militias clashed with pro-government fighters for a second day.Only yesterday, both sides agreed to a ceasefire and talks after meetings with EU envoy Louis Michel. But the deal broke down within hours and Sheik Aweys called on his countrymen to take part in the struggle against Ethiopia, whose troops are reported to be fighting on the government's side.Sue Turton reports on the latest violence in Somalia and explains how it's dragging in neighbouring countries in the Horn of Africa.

Channel4.com

Heavy fighting rocks Somalia

Heavy fighting rocks Somalia
Thursday, 21 Dec 2006 22:48

Current fighting is concentrated in the south-east of Somalia
Somalia is suffering the worst fighting seen so far this year as Islamist forces battle the Ethiopian-backed transitional government in the country's southern region.
The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controls most but not all of the eastern African state, attacked government troops between the Somalian capital of Mogadishu and the transitional government's only major town, Baidoa on Tuesday.
Since then the two sides have claimed approximately 100 fatalities each in the fighting, which is occurring in an area roughly 60 miles south-east of Baidoa."All Somalis should take part in this struggle against Ethiopia," a leader of the UIC said earlier today, creating fears that the Islamists plan on extending the previously limited and sporadic fighting into a full-scale war.
Although their presence remains unconfirmed and is denied by both the Ethiopian and Somalian governments, reports suggest that the forces defending Baidoa are almost certainly being supplemented by members of the Ethiopian military.
The UIC launched their latest attacks hours after a deadline demanding that the Ethiopians allegedly making territorial incursions into Somalia remove themselves from the country at once.
Fears are growing that Ethiopia may choose to reinforce its apparent military presence in Somalia, forcing the onset of an outright war which could draw in other local players in the unstable Horn of Africa region.

Somalia: ICU says scores of Ethiopian soldiers killed in the fighting

Mohamed Abdi Farah
Despite Diplomatic Efforts, Fighting Between Somalia And Ethiopia ContinuesDecember 21, 2006 4:29 p.m. EST
Julie Farby - All Headline News Staff Writer
Mogadishu, Somalia (AHN)-Despite Western diplomatic efforts to quell the escalating violence, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of the Union of Islamic Courts, which controls Mogadishu and much of Southern Somalia, says the Islamists are at war with neighboring Ethiopia.
The Islamists have accused Ethiopia of sending troops and funds to help prop up the fledgling interim Somalia government. On the other side of the dispute, Ethiopia's neighboring rival, Eritrea, is believed to be providing arms and troops to the Islamists. However, both countries deny the charges.
While, internationally recognized, the roughly two-year-old interim government has had little success controlling the Islamists, who seized Mogadishu in June and have quickly consolidated their power throughout the country.
Although both the Islamists and Somalia's interim government agreed to a ceasefire and unconditional talks after meetings in Baidoa with EU envoy Louis Michael, fighting on the ground has continued virtually unabated.
SomaliNet

Despite Diplomatic Efforts, Fighting Between Somalia And Ethiopia Continues

Despite Diplomatic Efforts, Fighting Between Somalia And Ethiopia Continues
December 21, 2006
Julie Farby - All Headline News Staff Writer
Mogadishu, Somalia (AHN)-Despite Western diplomatic efforts to quell the escalating violence, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of the Union of Islamic Courts, which controls Mogadishu and much of Southern Somalia, says the Islamists are at war with neighboring Ethiopia.
The Islamists have accused Ethiopia of sending troops and funds to help prop up the fledgling interim Somalia government. On the other side of the dispute, Ethiopia's neighboring rival, Eritrea, is believed to be providing arms and troops to the Islamists. However, both countries deny the charges.
While, internationally recognized, the roughly two-year-old interim government has had little success controlling the Islamists, who seized Mogadishu in June and have quickly consolidated their power throughout the country.
Although both the Islamists and Somalia's interim government agreed to a ceasefire and unconditional talks after meetings in Baidoa with EU envoy Louis Michael, fighting on the ground has continued virtually unabated.

All Headline News

Eritrea’s mediation on Darfur seems compromised

Dec 20, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — While Eritrea has indicated tomorrow as a date for the starting of Darfur peace talks in Asmara, no rebel group arrived there. Sudanese government will send a delegation to demonstrate its commitment to the talks.

A delegation from the ruling National Congress Party led by Nafie Ali Nafie, presidential adviser and the party’s secretary for political and organizational affairs, will leave for Eritrea Thursday 21 December for Darfur peace talks.

On the other hand, no rebel delegation will send a delegation to Asmara. It seems that the rebel groups prefer to stay far from such initiative. They all argue that Asmara rejects the participation of the international community in the talks.

Also, according to different rebel sources Asmara is so engaged in its relations with Khartoum, they fear that Eritrea would not be a neutral mediator in the talks.

Despite the high ranking delegation headed by Nafie Ali Nafie Sudanese officials said the talks could be adjourned to the next month. Khartoum says didn’t being informed of the postponement of the negotiations.

Sudan said the negotiating ream for the talks set up by the Government of National Unity would arrive in Asmara as soon as representatives of the holdout groups arrive to Asmara.

Presidential adviser Nafie will hold talks with the ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice. His delegation includes members of the negotiation team.

The sole rebel leader who accepted the Eritrean initiative is Ahmed Ibrahim Diraig, the leader of Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance. Diraig, a former governor of Darfur from the Fur ethnic group, is a member of the National Redemption Front. He has no military action on the ground.

The other members of the NRF are not enthusiastic to take part in Asmara talks. The leaders of the Sudan Liberation Movement factions, they all declined the invitation. Abdelwahid al-Nur and Ahmed Abdelshafi may never go back to Asmara.

The United Nations and the African Union and the international community announced in Addis Ababa meeting on 16 November that any future talks on Darfur peace should be organized by the Au and the UN.

Khartoum would be happy to secure Eritrea and to see Darfur rebels relations with Asmara deteriorated. Eritrea has successfully mediated for the end of Eastern Sudan conflict because of the close relations with the former rebel Eastern Front.

Sudan Tribune

Many in Ethiopia See Premier's Talk of War As Ploy to Tighten Grip

By Stephanie McCrummen

Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; Page A18

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- War or no war with Somalia, Mulunesh Abebayhu wants out. Out of her teaching job, where Ethiopian security forces constantly harass her because of her political views. Out of this city, where hundreds of protesters were killed by police bullets after disputed elections last year. And, if she can manage, out of this country that she believes has plunged into the abyss of dictatorship at the hands of its prime minister, Meles Zenawi, a staunch ally of the United States in the vulnerable Horn of Africa.

"He confuses the Westerners so that he can keep ruling," said Abebayhu, 54, an opposition member arrested along with an estimated 30,000 others in the sweeping post-election crackdown last year. "Our party does not believe in this war. Our priority is to eradicate poverty, not go to war. Meles knows this war is a way for his system to survive."

As Ethiopia and Somalia's Islamic Courts movement inch closer each day to all-out conflict, a widespread view among people here in the capital is that Meles is using the conflict to distract people from a vast array of internal problems and to justify further repression of opposition groups, including ethnic Somalis in Ethiopia.

In particular, opponents of war say he is playing up the claim that there are al-Qaeda operatives within the Islamic Courts in order to maintain the support of the U.S. government, which relies on a steady flow of Ethiopian intelligence that some regional analysts say is of dubious value.

A recent attempt by Congress to sanction the Ethiopian government for widespread human rights violations failed after former Republican House leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.), lobbying on behalf of the Ethiopian government, argued that the United States needs Ethiopia in order to fight terrorism.

"We don't know why the Americans let them get away with it," said Abebayhu, who was denied her request for a U.S. visa and who said she receives death threats regularly.

Meanwhile, Meles has become so disliked in the city that people compare him unfavorably to the former dictator known as "the Butcher of Addis Ababa," Mengistu Haile Mariam, who was convicted last week of genocide after a trial lasting 12 years.

Around Victory Square, one of many roundabouts in this city of a thousand cafes and tin-patch markets, passersby offered opinions similar to that of Nemera Bersisa, 35, a record-keeper on his way home from work.

"I believe the Dergue regime is better than this one, even if they killed people," he said, referring to Mengistu's rule. "This regime is democratic only in words. They kill people without any law, and they arrest people without a reason. This government is trying to stay in power by using different mechanisms, like claiming the Somalis are invading. But this is not the case. Meles is trying to externalize his problems."

And those problems are vast.

After 12 years in power, Meles presides over a nation that still does not produce enough food to feed its own people, relying on the U.N. World Food Program to supplement struggling farmers. The number of people infected with HIV is rising every year: At least 500,000 Ethiopians are living with the virus now, according to government figures. At least half of the population lives on less than $1 a day, which is not enough to buy a single meal.

A smattering of new skyscrapers have gone up in Addis Ababa lately, and in recent years, the gaudy Sheraton Hotel was built, a fortified palace of marble and brass and $100 Scotch set amid a rusting neighborhood of leaning, one-room shacks. Locals call it Paradise in Hell.

Last year's elections began with high hopes and degenerated into a bloodbath. Opposition groups, who made significant gains but did not win a majority according to the national election board, accused the government of rigging the tally and flooded the streets to challenge the results. During the rallies in May and November last year, unarmed protesters were sprayed with bullets while others were hunted down, killed inside their homes and in their gardens, in front of children and neighbors.

Though the official government report released in October listed 197 demonstrators killed, some members of the government's own commission and human rights groups have estimated that the number could be as high as 600. Seven police officers were killed.

Since then, the mood around the capital has been grim.

"After the elections, the government is ruling Ethiopia by military force and propaganda, we all know that," Bersisa said. "We're dead after the election."

While most of the 30,000 prisoners taken after the election have been released, several hundred opposition leaders remain in jail, including the elected mayor of Addis Ababa, Birhanu Nega, who was a professor in the United States, and Haile Miriam Yacob, who served on the U.N. commission settling a border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Four private newspapers have been shut down. A reporter for the Associated Press was expelled. And random arrests on the streets of Addis Ababa continue daily, people say.

Residents of a largely Ethiopian Somali neighborhood called Rwanda say that government security forces have been rounding up people who refuse to swear allegiance to Meles' ruling party, a charge the government denied.

"Their main target is Ethiopian Somalis," said Reagan Dawale, 30, who left his home in the Somali region of Ethiopia because of the tense atmosphere there, only to find a similar situation in the capital.

In a recent interview, Meles, a former Marxist guerrilla who shed his fatigues for tailored suits when he took power in a 1991 coup, referred to the opposition as leading an "insurrection" intent on overthrowing the government by violent means, a charge opposition leaders deny.

Meles has introduced a few words into the Ethiopian vocabulary. Someone who is out of line is a "fendata." Dissatisfied, unemployed workers who must be controlled are the "adegnabozene." A "bichameberat" is a person who has crossed into the danger zone.

Meles said he retains U.S. support when it comes to defending Ethiopia against the Islamic Courts movement, which now controls much of Somalia, including Mogadishu, the capital. Meles said the Islamic Courts have already attacked Ethiopia by arming secessionist Ethiopian Somali groups in the Ogaden region along the Somali border, a claim opposition leaders believe is both exaggerated and hardly a justification for war.

"Our argument is that all the governments we've known since 1960 say they want the Ogaden," said Beyene Petros, leader of the main opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, referring to Somalia.

The Islamic Courts say it is the Ethiopians that have invaded Somalia. While Meles has repeatedly denied having troops there, the United Nations and regional diplomats estimate that at least 8,000 Ethiopian soldiers are in Somalia, backing the weak and divided transitional government.

Petros said Meles is poised to make precisely the same miscalculation in the Horn of Africa that critics say the United States made in invading Iraq: that a vastly superior military force can crush an ideologically driven guerrilla campaign.

"We should defend our borders, but I don't believe in a hot-pursuit campaign inside of Somalia," Petros said. "And I don't think this war is going to change the hearts of the Ethiopian people."

http://www.washingtonpost.com

‘U.S. Africa Command’ close to becoming a reality

By Gordon Lubold
Staff writer
At a Dec. 13 awards ceremony for Theresa Whelan, deputy assistant secretary of defense for African affairs, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said a new command would be created within “one to two months.” In accepting her award, Whelan quietly noted to Rumsfeld that the proposal is on President Bush’s desk awaiting his signature.

“Africa Command” is finally taking shape.

After months of speculation, the Pentagon appears poised to establish a combatant command for all of Africa, in answer to rising concerns about the continent’s humanitarian, economic and political challenges as well as increased awareness of terrorism networks operating there. Talk about the idea has gone on for years but intensified in recent months, and it now looks like a done deal.

Rumsfeld has pushed for the command, which requires a change to what is known as the Unified Command Plan, to allow the Defense Department to commit more resources and focus to the continent and the security issues the U.S. sees there. Currently, responsibility for the continent is split among three U.S. commands — European Command, Central Command and even Pacific Command all own some piece of it. The idea is that a new command, with a four-star to lead it, will help focus U.S. operations and resources in the region.

There had been talk of creating a sub-unified command under EurCom or another command, but that was ultimately shelved in favor of a new full-blown organization.

Resources may be an issue. If Bush agrees to the plan, as it appears he will, that would mean carving up the budgets of three combatant commands to reallocate resources appropriately to fund the new command. EurCom “owns” most of Africa, while Central Command is responsible for countries like Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya in the East. Madagascar, off the coast of Mozambique on the continent’s southwestern side, now belongs to Pacific Command.

Who will lead the new outfit? No one knows just yet, but Gen. William “Kip” Ward, who was recently installed as deputy commander of EurCom — and therefore focuses on Africa issues — likely will be considered for the job.

www.marinetimes.com

When Somalia spills over

By BDN Staff
Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - Bangor Daily News

By Garrett Jones

To most Americans, Somalia is the place where "Black Hawk Down" happened, or the place with the pictures of the starving African children, or, for some, the biblical land of Punt. (Scholars quibble about locating Punt.) Americans tend to confuse African countries with one another except when our soldiers are dying there, and the violence in Sudan, Uganda, Congo or Zimbabwe can seem indistinguishable.

But the anarchy in Somalia, which straddles the strategic Horn of Africa, is in a class by itself.

For more than 16 years, Somalia has existed without the pretense of a central government, surviving largely on foreign aid and remittances from its overseas diaspora, the best and brightest young Somalis. With the fading of the seasonal rains in December, the Somalis are preparing once again to inflict their intraclan squabbling on their neighbors. Meanwhile, the neighbors are preparing a proxy war, and they plan to fight one another to the last Somali.

I was there in 1993, running covert operations in Mogadishu for the CIA when the U.N. effort was wrecked. President George H.W. Bush had sent the Marines into Somalia to feed the starving children, and President Clinton was attempting to install a Jeffersonian democracy in a medieval culture. The Clinton theory was that the U.N. would use its peacemaking powers to force the Somali factions into a political accord, and then peace would break out.

Unfortunately, nobody told the Somalis. They viewed the U.N. and the U.S. as foreign invaders bent on Christianizing their Muslim culture while destroying the power of the clans and warlords. This dispute spawned a series of attacks that cumulated in the Battle of Mogadishu between the U.S. Task Force Ranger and Somali clan fighters, as portrayed in the film "Black Hawk Down." After losing 17 elite troops to an African mob in a single night, Clinton lost all stomach for further "nation building" involving U.S. casualties, and the U.N. effort collapsed. After that, the world largely went back to ignoring the Somalis.

Now the Somalis are poised to insist that the international community tune back in while they commit an auto-da-fe on CNN. Somali Islamists, modeling themselves on the Taliban, have taken control of most of the country, driving the warlords out of the cities and into the bush. The internationally recognized Somali interim government (an effort by neighboring countries to get the clans and factions to agree to some sort of consensus government with which the world can interact) is surrounded in the provincial city of Baidoa, about 160 miles northwest of the capital. When the roads are dry enough to allow military operations, the Islamists will swiftly overwhelm the interim government unless outside help arrives at the last minute.

Already, a team of al-Qaida-style suicide bombers have blasted Baidoa. The Islamists make no bones about their plans to install a fundamentalist government and to begin "rescuing" their brethren in neighboring countries (read all of East Africa) from the oppressive rule of the Christian Crusaders.

Somalia’s neighbors are bracing for a regional war, and the U.S. State Department says 10 countries are taking sides in some fashion. Ethiopia, which has a restive Muslim south and a history of being a target for Somali brigandage whenever the Somalis pause in their intraclan feuding, is sending troops to back up the interim government and oppose the Islamists.

The Eritreans, led by an increasingly paranoid, sociopathic president, are the sworn blood enemies of the Ethiopians. Seeing a chance to weaken their bigger neighbor, they are flying in arms and instructors to the Islamists.

Across the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabi fundamentalists see the Christian Ethiopians embarking on a "crusade" to crush Islam. In response, they are providing cash through Wahhabi charities to their Islamic comrades, frightening and infuriating Washington, D.C.

Kenya’s kleptocratic government, overwhelmed by an influx of refugees, is wringing its hands while endless talks take place in Nairobi hotels between irrelevant Somali politicians and clueless U.N. diplomats in search of a peace plan. The Islamists want no part of the talks; they are winning.

When the big, ugly regional war breaks out, the Islamists, with the help of Eritrean advisers, probably will hold their own. Now add in your odd Somali warlord, drug-crazed clan gunmen and the Somali history of atrocities and you have a real mess in the Horn of Africa. Fighting probably will spill into Kenya, and destitute refugees will surge across East Africa. Bottom line: It is likely by this time next year that the Horn of Africa will host its own little Taliban wannabe, more or less in control of Somalia and at war with its neighbors. Along the way, there will be a lot of dead people and suffering refugees.

Although this is far away, and might not happen to anyone you know personally, it is going to become a concern of the U.S. soon. An Islamic fundamentalist haven on the Horn of Africa is more than a tragedy for the long-suffering Africans; it is a threat to the oil routes that fuel the West and pass just offshore. Recent domestic terrorist attacks have shaken the House of Saud’s iron grip on its population; a sanctuary where its fundamentalist enemies can regroup only a few hours across the Red Sea would be a dagger at its heart.

A terrorist Somalia would be difficult to contain. Most African governments have little ability to find, let alone effectively police, their own borders. If the Islamic fundamentalists establish a haven in Somalia, they could infiltrate or threaten the many weak secular governments in surrounding countries.

Washington should lean hard on the government of Saudi Arabia to crack down on the Wahhabi charity money that fuels the Somali Islamist war machine. If the Saudis don’t want those petrodollars coming back at them in a few years as RPGs fired by anti-royalist fundamentalists based in Somalia, it behooves them to overcome the reservations they have shown about squeezing fellow Wahhabists.

Even our best efforts, however, will not stop a long, bloody conflict. Get ready for more pictures of starving African babies. Film at 11, death and suffering around the clock.

Garrett Jones is a retired CIA case officer who has served in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. He wrote this column for the Los Angeles Times.

http://bangordailynews.com

Somalia as a backdrop (ION Update)

Somalia as a backdrop
Indian Ocean Newsletter N° 1204 16/12/2006

Meles Zenawi is trying to moderate his internal opposition so as to have his hands free to handle the inevitable armed conflict with Somalian Islamists.

Several initiatives are currently under way to find a way out of the internal political crisis in Ethiopia. Thus, Ephraim Isaac (photo), a Falasha (Ethiopian Jew) living in the United States where he heads the Institute of Semitic Studies at Princeton University and is chairman of the Peace and Development Committee for Ethiopia and the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America, last month visited the leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP) in prison in Addis-Ababa. He presented himself to them as a “non-partisan” emissary, sent by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to ask them to dissociate themselves officially from the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF, armed opposition). In return they would be freed before the end of the year. The imprisoned leaders rejected this offer but are nevertheless believed to be divided over it. Particularly since at least two of them, Hailu Shawel and Mesfin Woldemariam, are in poor health.

Furthermore, also according to our sources, discreet negotiations are under way between pro and anti-government Ethiopian intellectuals. These informal discussions have set the members of the Citizen's Charter Group(CCG) against the intellectuals with ties to the regime in place, such as Professor Bahru Zewde in Addis Ababa. The CCG was formed by a dozen CUDP partisans (including Abate Kassa, Berhanu Abegaz, Elias Wondimu, Fekadu Fullas and Mammo Muchie) and recently issued a call to form a government of national unity in Ethiopia. Last week Zewde went to Paris for a meeting with, among others, Pr Mammo Muchie and Tecle Zerihun from Unesco. Some of these intellectuals have ties with Ephraim Isaac.

At the end of the 1999s, Ephraim Isaac had founded an Elders Peace Committee and undertook mediation between Ethiopia and Eritrea, without being able to prevent an armed border conflict from breaking out.
ION (African Intelligence)

War stalks Somalia's 'City of Death'

ANTHONY MITCHELL

Associated Press

BAIDOA, Somalia - A headless statue of a soldier stands guard at the entrance of Somalia's "City of Death" - a fitting monument in a place once more stalked by war. An Islamic movement, accused of having al-Qaida terrorists in its ranks, and a new U.N.-backed government struggling to end 15 years of anarchy are vying for control of this nation and girding for battle.

"We are used to war in Somalia, it holds no fear for us," Sadia Ali Mohamed, a 28-year-old mother of two, told The Associated Press as she strolled through Baidoa's bustling market, buying beans for her children.

"But now after all this time we want peace."

Baidoa, which earned its ominous nickname in 1992 when famine and war left thousands dying in the streets, is the U.N.-backed government's temporary capital.

Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into chaos.

The government now holed up in Baidoa was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but it has struggled to assert its authority. The Islamic network that has emerged to fill the vacuum in much of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu, has among it radicals who have been linked to anti-Western terrorists and have vowed to bring Quranic rule to Somalia.

Baidoa is a squalid place, lacking clean water and electricity and where children play alongside rubbish rotting in the street. It hardly seems worth dying for.

Some 40 miles to the north, east and south of the city several thousand armed militia loyal to the Islamic movement have set up camp and threatened to attack. Since June the group has expanded control across much of southern Somalia.

Ethiopia, a Christian nation fearing a hardline Islamic neighbor, has deployed troops in support of the government. Ethiopia, home to a community of ethnic Somalis, also is worried by declarations from some in the Islamic movement about their desire to unite all Somalis into a "Greater Somalia."

Military vehicles with Ethiopian plates rumble through the potholed streets and Ethiopian soldiers haggle in Baidoa's markets for a bargain to take home.

Both the transitional government and Ethiopia insist the troops, in camouflaged uniforms but without insignia, are military advisers, not a fighting force.

Somali soldiers man checkpoints on all roads in and out of Baidoa, a city of 70,000, after two recent suicide car bomb attacks, one of which nearly killed the president. Government forces regularly test weapons, purple tracer fire from their guns visible in the night sky.

"The government is the beginnings of legitimacy," Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf told The Associated Press on Friday. "It is a return to law and order ... the alternative is a return to chaos."

The presence of the Ethiopian troops and Somali soldiers has clearly reassured the local population. Movie theaters continue to show soccer games and men gather in cafes. Traditional mystical poets perform in the streets.

"We feel safe and do not think the Islamic forces will be able to attack Baidoa," said Hassan Ali Abdi, a merchant. "We are ready and prepared now."

Both the United Nations, using its financial support for the transitional government, and the European Union, are increasing pressure to get both sides to pull back from war. EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel is expected to travel Wednesday for talks in Baidoa, and Mogadishu, where the Islamic group is based.

But long term prospects for peace look dim. And conflict could engulf the already volatile Horn of Africa. A recent U.N. report said 10 nations have been sending weapons to the warring sides in Somalia. Eritrea, Ethiopia's traditional rival, is supporting the Islamic movement.

Source: www.mercurynews.com

Don't Fight Somalia

Princeton Lyman - Somalia edges closer to war each day. Ethiopia and the Council of Islamic Courts (CIC) have positioned troops just a few miles from each other inside Somalia. Ethiopia and the United States have meanwhile staked out increasingly belligerent positions toward the CIC. Ethiopia's Prime Minister has scoffed at moderation as only encouraging "terrorists." The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer has charged that the CIC is now controlled by Al Qaeda cell individuals. American intelligence personnel are seen increasingly in Addis Ababa, suggesting the U.S. will back an Ethiopian military action. A war in Somalia would easily spread throughout the Horn, with refugees streaming into Kenya and Djibouti. War could once again erupt between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The U.S. has pushed through a UN Security Council resolution that authorizes an African peacekeeping force that would presumably offer an alternative to Ethiopian troops in the country. But the CIC is firmly opposed to any such force. It is hard to see how any African country could deploy troops against the determined opposition of the CIC without furthering the prospect of war.

The U.S. seems to be playing a dangerous game with few chips. What is needed urgently is a diplomatic initiative with moderate supporters of the CIC, in particular Saudi Arabia and Egypt. They must be as concerned over a potential Al Qaeda outpost in the Red Sea region as is the United States. Getting their influence to bear on the CIC to moderate its belligerent positions, along with similar openings to the Somali business community that supports the CIC, is a way to step back from a war that will not serve American purposes at all.

Princeton Lyman is Adjunct Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Source of Analysis: http://blog.washingtonpost.com

Picture: OromiaTimes Collection

Peace initiative seen as futile in Somalia

Peace initiative seen as futile in Somalia

Agreement between government, Islamic militia is 'symbolic'

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOGADISHU, Somalia

A Somali legislator bypassed the government and signed an agreement yesterday to end hostilities with the country's powerful Islamic militia, a symbolic gesture that is unlikely to have any real effect.

Parliamentary Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden has made freelance peace initiatives before with the Islamists, but the government says that he no longer acts on its behalf. He is considered the government's most sympathetic leader to the Council of Islamic Courts.

The pact - which pledges to halt military action and resume peace talks - comes one day after President Abdullahi Yusuf said that peace talks with the Islamists are no longer an option, warning that the group is allowing al-Qaida terrorists to "set up shop" in the Horn of Africa.

"This is a new chapter and part of the terror group's plan to wage war against the West," Yusuf told The Associated Press from his office in Baidoa, about 155 miles from Mogadishu.

Tension has been mounting in recent weeks between the government, which has international recognition but little actual authority, and the Council of Islamic Courts, which controls most of southern Somalia. The United States has said that the Islamic movement has links to al-Qaida, an accusation Islamic leaders have repeatedly denied.

The Islamic Courts movement has vowed to start a holy war starting next week unless Ethiopian troops supporting the government leave Somalia. Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation, fears the emergence of a neighboring Islamic state and has acknowledged sending military advisers - though not a fighting force - to help the government.

The pact signed yesterday calls for "rejecting any interference in the internal Somalia affairs by the neighboring countries," a clear reference to Ethiopia.

Also yesterday, witnesses in Baidoa - the only town controlled by the government - said that Ethiopian troops fired at a civilian truck when it did not stop at a roadblock, killing one person.

http://www.journalnow.com/

200 government-deserted soldiers unite with Islamists

200 government-deserted soldiers unite with Islamists

Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu 17, Dec.06 ( Sh.M.Network) –Nearly 200 fresh government militias armed with automatic weapons have deserted from their barracks in Baidoa, the current temporary seat for the transitional government of Somalia. They united with rival Islamic Courts fighters positioned in Dinsor, 120 km (75 miles) south of Baidoa, Sunday.

Islamic Courts officials have welcomed the deserters in a settlement dubbed Idaale in Bai province, southern Somalia.

Islamic Courts alleged that the large numbers of soldiers defecting from the government would definitely undermine the authority of the fragile government that importantly hinges on the Ethiopian military might in Baidoa.

Dhiif Osman Abdulle, an Islamist commander in Dinsor, has told Shabelle by the phone that government deserters have united with them. “They (defectors) have decided to support Islam after they realized their belief and honor were being harmed by pro-Ethiopian government in Baidoa,” Abdulle said.

One of the defected government militias, Ali Nasir Dirie Abtidoon, has told Shabelle by phone that he and his fellow militias made their mind up leaving the government. “We have seen that Ethiopian troops occupy Baidoa on day to day and they are definitely going to attack the Somali people, that is why we decided to unite with Islamic Courts to defend the Somali people against the Ethiopian invaders,” he said.

More than six hundred militias defected from the government since it shifted to Baidoa on 26 February this year.

The government was not available for comments over the issue.

These deserted government soldiers were positioned in Dhargo, a government stronghold closer to Islamists’ base in Bai province.

On Thursday about 100 government soldiers accompanied by six trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns have defected to Islamic Courts in the capital Mogadishu.

Islamists took control of the capital early June this year after they forcerfully-evicting former US backed warlords and then expanded their military powers into central and southern regions in the country, besieging the largely weak government based in the small town of Baidoa.

Shabelle News Network

"Mengistu must go home to face the music" says Zimbabwean MP

By Tendai Biti, MP

THE conviction for genocide of the exiled former dictator of Ethiopia, Mengistu Haile Mariam by the Ethiopian court, is an occasion that deserves celebration by all patriotic Africans.

Anyone familiar with the sordid history of Ethiopia and the manner in which Mengistu seized power in 1974 from Emperor Haile Selassie and ruthlessly executed him will not have any sympathy for Mengistu.

Anyone who is aware of the thousands of people massacred and executed during Mengistu's chequered years in power would celebrate the court's verdict. So too would the millions in Eritrea who lost friends and relatives durin their bloody war of liberation against Mengistu's Ethiopia.

Mengistu presided over an undemocratic regime, whose driving fuel was the desire to reproduce itself at any cost. Thus, whilst millions of people went hungry, Mengistu spent millions of United States dollars acquiring sophisticated arms and pitting the Russians and the Americans against each other.

Many of us still remember the images of starvation that became synonymous with Ethiopia in 1984. It was a famine in which many historians, including Martin Meredith, described as "the biggest disaster of the 20th century."

It was a famine which gave rise to Bob Girdolf's first band aid concerts in the 1980s. Such was the kind of suffering authored by Mengistu.

During the same year, in 1984, whilst millions of Ethiopisans were dying, Mengistu was constructing his new convention hall, "The Great Hall of the People", with a sitting capacity of 3 500 delegates with the help of North Korean constructors. Moreover, the 10 years celebration of the 1974 "revolution" gobbled US$150 million while millions were starving. It is a tale of grandeur and affluence amid poverty that many who are familiar wit dictators will testify.

The way Mengistu decimated the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party, the Tigray's People's Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Front was with such primitive ruthlessness that has few competing stories on the continent.

For instance, in August 1980, Mengistu's army began an offensive in central Tigray that lasted for seven months. The basis of this campaign was a scorched earth approach in which the army destroyed grain stores and houses, burnt crops and pastures, killed livestock and displaced over 80 000 farmers. Some will remember how he ordered famine areas to be closed to visitors, tourists and donor representatives, particularly in Wollo an Tigray.

Many will remember how Mengistu's own informal militias, the equivalent of our own Green Bombers, known as kebeles, massacred thousands of people during the Red Terror campaigns against so-called reactionaries.

There is no doubt that Mengistu committed crimes against humanity as defined in Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. He committed heinous crimes on a widespread basis against innocent civilians intentionally and unlawfully. There are even those who have written graphically about the way he personally executed emperor Haile Selassie and desecrated the remains of the poor emperor. Quite clearly, under Article 25 and Article 28 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Mengistu would be liable.

The decision in 1991 by the Zimbabwe government to provide refuge at first instance to Mengistu was abhorrent and unacceptable. It is an insult to the millions of Ethiopians who suffered under Mengistu. It is an insult to the millions massacred in the Orgaden, in Harar, in Addis Abbaba, in Asmara and in Wallo. It is also an insult to the millions of Africans who have suffered abuse at the hands of dictators.

These include the thousands of Tutsis massacred in July 1994, the thousands of poor peasants whose limbs were redecorated in Sierra Leonne and Liberia. It is an insult to the millions of South Africans who either suffered or perished under apartheid. It is an insult to those who lost relatives and parents during Gukurahundi and those who were brutally assaulted and murdered in the madness that characterised this country between 2000 and 2005.

The Zimbabwe government's decision to refuse to hand over Mengistu back to the Ethiopian government to face the music following his conviction betrays the inner fear of the regime to international law. The precedent of Slobodan Milosevic and more recently, Charles Taylor, cannot be a comforting one to the regime. That is why the tyrants in Zimbabwe are refusing to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as well as the United Nations Convention Against Torture. How the regime can refuse to ratify as pure and self-justified a cause as the Convention Against Torture is a reflection of the bloodied hands of this regime.

To the majority of Zimbabweans, Mengistu is an unwelcome guest who has overstretched the natural benignty of the average Zimbabwean. Zimbabweans believe Mengistu is persona non grata. There are allegations that he has been a military and security advisor to Robert Mugabe and that his advice was critical during Operation Murambatsvina. That is not surprising. The way that cruel operation was carried out by this regime bears many resemblances to Mengistu's Red Terror. Further, the Zanu PF militia, the Green Bombers have more than a passing resemblance to the kebeles.

In our view, the period in which dictators can mess up their people irrespective of international law is long gone by. The days in which dictators would consort in a boys' club and luxuriously look after themselves are over. Mr Mengistu may be safe in Harare for now, but for how long?

Hon Tendai Biti, MP is the Secretary-General of the MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai

http://newzimbabwe.com/pages/mengistu8.15616.html