Islamist rulers blame Ethiopia

2006-07-26 11:21

Mogadishu - Mogadishu's Islamist rulers on Tuesday blamed Ethiopia's "invasion" of Somalia for stalled peace talks with the fragile interim government as a United Nations envoy struggled to kick-start negotiations.

A newly powerful Islamists' hardline leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said: "As long as Ethiopia is in our country, talks with the government cannot go ahead ... Ethiopia has invaded us."

According to witnesses and regional experts, anti-Islamist Ethiopia had sent several thousand troops into Somalia to counter expansion by the Islamists and protect the government of President Abdullahi Yusuf, based in the provincial town, Baidoa.

The Islamists rose to power in battle against United States-backed warlords earlier this year, taking Mogadishu on June 05. Washington feared that they harboured al-Qaeda-linked extremists.

Islamists 'committed to negotiations'

In Baidoa, Yusuf's government told the UN special envoy to Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, that the government would attend a second round of talks in Sudan despite its earlier objection that the Islamists had broken a pact against military expansion.

Yusuf's chief of staff Abdirizak Adam said: "We will go to Khartoum without any preconditions."

Baidoa residents said that while the Ethiopian troops had pulled out, they had only gone to three camps outside the town.

From Baidoa, Fall then flew to Mogadishu, where the Islamists told him they were committed to negotiations in principle, but not while Ethiopian troops were on their soil.

The international community saw talks - probably leading to some sort of a power-sharing agreement - as the only way to prevent the Islamist-government standoff spiralling into war.

Ethiopia 'denies sending troops to Somalia'

Fall said: "I can talk to you as an African. I am appealing to you ... to continue the dialogue."

The US state department called on all parties in Somalia, and its neighbours, to avoid violence.

Spokesperson Tom Casey said: "We'll encourage the transitional federal authorities and the transitional government for Somalia to go forward and to engage in dialogue with the Islamists."

Any conflict could also drag in Eritrea. Just as Ethiopia denied sending troops to Somalia, so Eritrea had denied helping the Islamists. However, a UN report pointed the finger at Asmara for sending arms.

Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa's main power, backed Yusuf and said the Islamists were led by terrorists. It had intervened in Somalia in the past to attack radical Islamists near its border.

The Islamists' rise had challenged the authority of Yusuf's government, set up in 2004 in the 14th attempt to restore central rule to Somalia since the 1991 ousting of a dictator by warlords ushered in an era of anarchy.

The Islamists said they were restoring peace to Somalia.

- Reuters