Ali Musa Abdi
Thursday, November 02, 2006
As threats of war mounted at home, mediators downplayed fears that the failure to launch peace talks in the Sudanese capital Khartoum would stoke further unrest.
Despite intense last-ditch intervention by diplomats, the Islamists refused to participate in the talks until Ethiopian forces deployed in Somalia pull out while the government rejected the mediator's plea for a formal delay in negotiations.
"The Islamic courts are responsible for the failure of the talks in Khartoum. Their pre-conditions showed their desire of turning Somali into a battle field," said chief government negotiator Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail.
Ismail warned that the government would not sit and watch as the Islamists violate previous agreements, notably a truce and mutual recognition pact.
"The government of Somalia has the right to take all the necessary action to secure the whole of Somalia," added Ismail, also deputy prime minister.
"We will not sit and watch while criminal acts of the Islamic courts devastate Somalia. Our hands will not be tied, we will act very soon," he added.
But the Islamists said the talks collapsed because Ethiopia refused to heed calls to pull out thousands of troops deployed to protect the government in Baidoa, 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of the capital, from a feared Islamic advance.
The Islamists, who blame Ethiopia for the collapse of the talks, said Addis Ababa had already sent 12,000 forces int parts of southcentral Somalia who are ready to launch attacks.
"The talks collapsed because of Ethiopian troops," said said Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the head of the Islamists' executive committee.
"We can confirm that there are 12,000 Ethiopian forces inside Somali territory. They are going to attack us and take our country and that will not happen by the wishes of Allah," Ahmed told thousands of soldiers from the defunct Somali army in southern Mogadishu.
Reports by an independent panel monitoring the UN arms ambargo on Somalia said there were up to 8,000 Ethiopian and 2,000 Eritreans supporting rival sides.
Ethiopia accused the Islamists of having links with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, but they say they are only interested in restoring law and order in the country.
The rising influence of the Islamists, who control much of southern Somalia, has threatened the authority of the government.
They swapped accusations as tension mounted in southcentral Somalia, where the rivals reinforced their defences, a day after artillery, rockets and mortars were fired into the air in shows of force over a 20-kilometer (12-mile) no-man's land separating them near Baidoa.
All fear a full-scale war that could embroil the Horn of Africa region in conflict, drawing in arch-foe neighbors Ethiopia and Eritrea, who are accused of backing the rival Somali factions.
Ethiopia and Eritrea are suspected by many to be using Somalia as a proxy battlefield for their unresolved 1998-2000 border war and there are fears that they could be drawn into a conflict between the Islamists and Somali government.
Somalia has been without a functioning central administration since the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre and the government has been wracked by infighting and its inability to assert control over much of the country.
More than a dozen internationally backed attempts have failed to restore peace in Somalia, a lawless nation of about 10 million that has also been ravaged by natural calamities, notably famine and floods.
Source: AFP, Nov 2, 2006