UN resolution will provoke war in Somalia

Islamic militia says UN resolution will provoke war in Somalia

Published: Friday, December 8, 2006 | 12:48 AM ET
Canadian Press: MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Ethiopian troops have shelled a central Somalia town, two days after the UN passed a resolution to ease an arms embargo on Somalia, an official of the country's Islamic courts said Friday.

This is the second time in 10 days the Ethiopians are reported to have shelled Bandiradley, about 630 kilometres northeast of the capital, Mogadishu.

"Ethiopian soldiers have massed around Bandiradley soon after the arms embargo had been lifted and started firing missiles toward our positions," said Sheikh Abdullahi Ali Hashi, a spokesman for the Council of Islamic Courts told The Associated Press by telephone from central Somalia.

On Thursday, Islamic officials in control of most of southern Somalia warned that war will erupt over a UN Security Council decision authorizing an African force to protect the country's virtually powerless government.

The Security Council unanimously approved the resolution Wednesday, saying it hoped to restore peace in Somalia and avert a broader conflict in the region.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedis, formerly one of Somalia's prominent warlords, welcomed the decision and urged its immediate implementation.
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The U.S. resolution, co-sponsored by the council's African members, urged the Islamic Courts union, which controls the capital of Mogadishu and most of the south, to stop any further military expansion and join the transitional government in peace talks.

However, peace talks slated for later this month appeared unlikely, with the Islamic group saying it will now have to reconsider joining any such dialogue with the UN-backed administration.

A spokesman for the Islamic movement said the resolution will introduce sophisticated weapons into Somalia and provoke a war between his group and the struggling government.

"We see the approval of the resolution as nothing but an evil intention," Abdirahin Ali Mudey, spokesman for the Islamic Courts, told The Associated Press.

Mudey accused the Security Council of giving the Somali government's main ally, Ethiopia, permission to occupy the country.

"The international community has proven to be biased and unjust," he said.

The resolution, however, bans Somalia's neighbours from sending soldiers, which would prohibit participation in the force by troops from Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. Uganda is the only country that has so far volunteered troops.

But eyewitnesses in Dagaari village near Bandiradley said that they saw hundreds of Ethiopian troops and tanks take up new positions near the town in co-ordination with militiamen from the northeastern semi autonomous region of Puntland and Qeybdiid's militia.

They said that this new movement puts these forces and their rival Islamic courts' militias only 2 kilometres apart.

"Ethiopians and their ally regional militia have increased their military presence here. Now they are advancing towards Bandiradley," said a local resident on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals.

The arms embargo against Somalia was imposed in 1992, a year after warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another. An interim government was formed two years ago with the help of the UN, but was ignored both by both the warlords and the Islamic militia, which eventually drove the warlords from Mogadishu and most of the south.

Critics of the resolution, including some non-governmental organizations, accuse the UN Security Council of taking sides in the dispute between the government and the Islamic movement.

But there are fears that, without international action, Somalia could become a proxy battleground for Ethiopia and Eritrea, which fought a border war in 1998-2000.

A confidential UN report obtained recently by The AP said 6,000-8,000 Ethiopian troops were in Somalia or along the border, supporting the transitional government. It also said 2,000 soldiers from Eritrea were inside Somalia, supporting the Islamic militia - which Eritrea denies.

Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu denounced the Security Council resolution as an "attack on the Somali people."

He also said it provided support for just one warlord, an indirect reference to Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf's past as one of the country's major warlords.

The authorized force "is not a peacekeeping force, it is an invasion-keeping force," Abdu told Al-Jazeera television.

The resolution authorizes a seven-country East African group known as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, and the African Union to establish "a protection and training mission in Somalia" for an initial period of six months.

Council diplomats said IGAD envisions a force of eight battalions, each with 700 to 800 troops, but only two would be deployed in the first phase.

The UN last authorized peacekeepers to enter Somalia in December 1992, with the U.S. leading an international force to help feed famine victims in the midst of widespread violence between warlords.

By 1993, the mission evolved into disarming factions hindering relief efforts, including a search for Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aidid, a leading warlord. On Oct. 3, an urban battle with Aidid's forces killed 18 U.S. soldiers and wounded 84.

Public outrage over the troops' violent deaths - fed by televised pictures of the bodies of U.S. soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu - generated political pressure that forced then-president Bill Clinton to order all troops to withdraw by March 31, 1994.