Ethiopia 'to invade Somalia'
2006-08-24 08:46
Nairobi - Eritrea on Wednesday opposed the deployment of a peacekeeping force in Somalia, which was scheduled for next month, warning that its rival, Ethiopia, wanted to use the opportunity to invade Somalia.
Last week, defence chiefs from the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) said the first elements of the nearly 7 000-strong force were to assemble in northeast Kenya, near the Somali border, in late September ready for deployment in the shattered Horn of Africa nation.
The Eritrean information ministry said the IGAD deployment would affect efforts by Somalis themselves to restore a functional authority in the lawless country.
Asmara said Islamic militia who were dominant in the country were attempting to restore calm in the capital, Mogadishu, and breathe life into stalled institutions of governance.
Ethiopia deployed troops in Somalia
The ministry said: "Yet, instead of encouraging this internal initiative, various attempts are being made to pave the way for external military intervention so as to obstruct the aforementioned developments.
"One of such attempts is the ridiculous proposition about the need of a peacekeeping mission in Somalia being advocated in the name of IGAD and the African Union, the latter being an organisation that had uttered not a word during the Somali people's 16-year long plight."
IGAD, whose members were Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti and nominally Somalia, was credited with mediating two years of convoluted peace talks that resulted in the creation of the Somali government in 2004.
Ethiopia had already deployed troops in Somalia to protect the weak government from a feared advance by the Islamic militia, who controlled a swathe of southern and central Somalia, including Mogadishu.
Positive developments in Somalia
The ministry warned: "Thus, it should not be very surprising to see Ethiopia applying every political tool in its disposal to undermine positive developments in Somalia.
"The only task this so-called peacekeeping mission will accomplish is to implement the Ethiopia's ruling party's own agenda and nothing more."
The Islamists had vowed to oppose the deployment of peacekeepers in Somalia, expected to start with two battalions from Uganda and Sudan, with a wing of radical clerics vowing to organise attacks against the peacekeepers.
Ties between Ethiopia and Eritrea had been badly strained for the past year with Asmara warning of a new conflict unless a 2002 border decision was put into place.
Analysts had warned that chronic instability in Somalia, which had been without a functioning central authority since the 1981 ouster of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, could become a proxy battleground for Ethiopia and Eritrea, which fought a bloody border war from 1998 to 2000.
Ethiopia had openly announced its resentment of the Islamists, and Eritrea had been accused of arming them.