Ethiopian troops 'in Somalia'

2006-07-22 18:46

Addis Ababa - Ethiopia has vowed to "crush" the Somali Islamic courts, a day after the courts threatened a holy war against Addis Ababa.

The courts accuse Ethiopia of sending troops to protect Somalia's weak interim government.

Witnesses reported an incursion of Ethiopian troops into a second Somali town close to Baidoa, the seat of the country's government, on Saturday, ostensibly to protect it from any advance by the Islamists.

Residents in the town of Wajid, 100km south of the Somali-Ethiopian border, said about 250 heavily-armed Ethiopian soldiers had arrived early in the day.

"Ethiopian troops numbering about 250 arrived in Wajid town in Bakol region," said local resident Ahmed Issa. "They came in 30 armed vehicles and lorries."

A district official in Wajid denied the presence of the troops.

"There is a border line"

Addis Ababa has vowed to "crush" the Islamic militia if they dared cross into its territory".

A senior government official told AFP: "Ethiopia has made it clear on several occasions that there is a border line they don't have to cross, if they do they will be crushed."

Ethiopia and the Somali government have denied any incursion by Addis Ababa's troops despite numerous eyewitness accounts.

On Thursday and Friday, residents of Baidoa said they had spotted Ethiopian troops in the town after the government had accused the Islamic union of planning an attack.

Meanwhile, a senior Somali government official called for the disarmament of the courts on Saturday.

He said the courts posed a threat to the government. The Somali government has been unable to exert its authority since relocating from exile in Kenya last year.

"The Islamic courts present a threat to the transitional federal government if they are not disarmed," said the official. "Islamic courts are part of this community... They have no right to keep weapons."

Minister dismisses courts as "unreliable"

The leader of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) vowed a holy war against Ethiopia on Friday, a call some observers said was merely populist rhetoric.

However, Mogadishu residents rallied in support of SICS supreme leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys in denouncing Ethiopia's move. Some termed it a deliberate act of provocation.

"The incursion by Ethiopia is a deliberate act to provoke Somalia and to further destabilise it," said Mahamoud Abdullahi, a former police officer. "It is a move contrary to international law."

The government has said it would only negotiate with the courts if there were international guarantees that the outcome of the talks was respected.

Somalia's the deputy information minister, Salad Ali Jeeley, has dismissed the SICS as "unpredictable" and "unreliable" and accused it of violating a truce reached in the first-round of talks held in Sudan last month.

- AFP