Somalis against foreign troops

2005-03-21 20:00

Mogadishu - Tens of thousands of demonstrators waived Somali and US flags on Monday as they denounced any attempt to send Ethiopian troops to the Horn of Africa country to secure Mogadishu for the government-in-exile's return home.

The protesters, including women and children, gathered in the capital's main soccer stadium to show support for a vote last week by the transitional parliament to keep neighbouring countries from deploying troops to Somalia. The prime minister has since said the resolution was invalid, sparking additional protests.

The new transitional government was formed late last year to bring peace to Somalia, which has not had an effective government since 1991.

The country has become divided into clan-based fiefdoms, and the new government and parliament are based in Kenya because the Somali capital, Mogadishu, is considered unsafe.

President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, a close ally of Ethiopia, has not ruled out having Ethiopian troops help protect his government. But anti-Ethiopian sentiment runs high in Mogadishu, where resentment remains from a mid-1970s war between the two countries and repeated Ethiopian incursions into Somalia since then.

Not a no-man's land

The mayor of Mogadishu, Ibrahim Omar Sabriye Shawey, said Mogadishu needs a government, but that Somalis remain proud of their country and their independence.

"Our government members and parliament must work together," he said. "Let's tell the world, Somalia is not a no man's land, we will defend our country from any enemy."

The protesters waived American flags in recognition of a US state department statement which said deploying Ethiopian troops to Somalia would be a bad idea.

The crowd also protested the arrest by Kenyan police of former warlord and minister of commerce Muse Sudi Yalahow and two other members of parliament for assaulting another lawmaker when the debate over foreign peacekeepers devolved into a brawl. Yalahow and his militia control part of Mogadishu.

Habiba Farah Roble, a former major from the national army, vowed to defend Somalia from Ethiopian troops.

"We fought Ethiopia and we will fight them again if they try to come into Somalia," she said.

- AP