Saturday, June 20, 2009
Parliament passed a resolution saying it needed foreign countries to send troops immediately, Speaker Sheik Adam Mohamed Nor told journalists, without giving details of the vote. President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who is also a member of parliament, did not take part.
"We have, as a parliament, decided to ask the regional governments — like Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti — as well as the international community to intervene militarily in Somalia within 24 hours to help the Somali nation," Nor said.
Fierce battles between the insurgents and government troops since Friday have left at least 10 people dead in the capital, according to witnesses, and forced the Parliament to hold its session Saturday in the presidential palace rather than its usual venue in northern Mogadishu.
Separately, the government on Saturday called for a state of emergency to be declared in the country. The president must announce the state of emergency before it can begin, though it is unlikely to change much as the weak government controls only a few blocks of the capital and a border town.
A suicide attack Thursday in western Somalia killed the country's national security minister and four other government officials. A hospital official there said late Friday that another 35 people had been killed in the attack, for which extremist Islamic group al-Shabab claimed responsibility. Somalia's president had blamed al-Qaida.
The U.S. State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist group with links to al-Qaida, which al-Shabab denies.
Counterterrorism experts have long feared Somalia is a haven for the terror network.
The United States, which in the past has launched air strikes targeting suspected al-Qaida members in Somalia, accuses al-Shabab of harboring al-Qaida-linked terrorists who allegedly blew up U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
It was unclear whether parliament's resolution Saturday would persuade Somalia's neighbors — Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya — to send in troops.
Ethiopia deployed troops for two years in Somalia to support the fragile, Western-backed government. They were withdrawn under an intricate peace deal in January following the election as president of moderate Islamist Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who had objected to the Ethiopians' presence in Somalia.
Last month Ethiopia sent in troops to the border regions of Somalia.
Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya are members of the Intergovernmental Authority Development, a regional group which has led past peace talks on Somalia and last month imposed a sea and air blockade to stop supplies reaching the Islamic insurgents there. It is not clear whether the blockade is effective.
There is already an African Union force in Mogadishu but its mandate is restricted to guarding key government officials and installations.
Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the country into anarchy and chaos. The lawlessness also has allowed Somali pirates to flourish, making the nation the world's worst piracy hotspot.
Source: AP, June 20, 2009