Somali Politicians Warn of 'Violent Conflict Looming'

[Gabbal]

Somali Politicians Warn of 'Violent Conflict Looming'

 

By Cathy Majtenyi

Nairobi

10 May 2005

 

 

A group of Somali parliamentarians say they plan to complain to the U.N. Security Council about what they say is a violation of the U.N. arms embargo by the Ethiopian government. They allege Ethiopia is supplying arms and ammunition to the militias of certain factions in Somalia.

 

Member of Parliament Abdallah Haji Ali told reporters in Nairobi he and his colleagues are worried about what he calls "violent conflict looming," particularly in the southern and central regions of Bay and Bakool and the town of Baidoa in Somalia.

 

Mr. Abdallah attributes this looming violence to the Ethiopian government's alleged long-time support of factions operating in these areas.

 

"We condemn Ethiopian involvement and protest its military aggression against the Somali people by backing militias loyal to faction leaders allied or known to be allied with the Ethiopians,†said Mr. Abdallah. “The Ethiopian government have supplied these militias [with] armaments, ammunition, and personnel. Units of Ethiopian regular troops are known, and can be confirmed, to have crossed deep into the Somali territory."

 

Mr. Abdallah says there are at least four Somali ministers who have militias operating in the regions and who rely on support from the Ethiopian government.

 

Mr. Abdallah says Ethiopia's intention is not for one militia to defeat the other, but to prevent Somalia from becoming stable. He would not elaborate on why or how a destabilized Somalia would benefit Ethiopia.

 

Pounding the table to make his point, Mr. Abdallah maintains that Ethiopia's actions violate the arms embargo that the United Nations levied against Somalia in 1992.

 

"We have to petition to the Security Council as members of parliament,†he added. "We are appealing to the Security Council. We are going to complain about Ethiopia to take its hands off Somalia."

 

Ethiopian government spokesman Zemedkun Tekle denies that his government is supplying arms and other support to Somali factions and says his country wants Somalia to be stable and peaceful.

 

"Our position as the government of Ethiopia is very clear: we need to get a peaceful and strong central government in Somalia. Ethiopia has tried her best to get that kind of government in Somalia. There is no interest of Ethiopia to help one party than the other," he said.

 

Ethiopia is a member of the regional grouping Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD),which spearheaded a two-year Somali peace process that brought together factional leaders, civil society leaders and others to end 14 years of anarchy and to form a new transitional government.

 

Ethiopia's involvement in the peace process was controversial, with many Somalis accusing their neighbor of manipulating the process for its particular ends.

 

Later, when IGAD proposed sending a peacekeeping force to Somalia, most Somalis balked at the idea of Ethiopian troops entering Somalia.

 

Many Somalis are still bitter about the ****** war of the 1970s, in which Somalia fought with Ethiopia over control of the ****** region. Ethiopia won that war, crushing hopes for leaders of the time to create a greater Somalia.

[Gabbal]

Somali MPs accuse Ethiopia of smuggling arms to Somalia

 

NAIROBI, May 10 (AFP) - A group of Somali lawmakers in-exile on Tuesday accused Ethiopia of smuggling weapons to militias in Somalia in violation of a 13-year-old UN arms embargo on the war-shattered Horn of Africa nation.

 

The MP's charges, made in Nairobi and Mogadishu, were immediately denied by a senior Ethiopian official in Kenya, where Somalia's transitional government has been based since it was since created last year due to insecurity at home.

 

But 83 lawmakers, including ministers in the transitional government, were insistent about Ethiopian activity that they said could lead to an imminent explosion of violence in Somalia's central Bakol and Bay regions.

 

"Besides donating assorted weapons to favored factions, unfortunately Ethiopian military personnel crossed deep in to Somali regions of Bakol and Bay in the last 48 hours," said MP Abdalla Haji Ali, a spokesman for the group.

 

"It is a matter of hours or very few days before an Ethiopian-masterminded war breaks out in Baidoa," he told reporters.

 

Baidoa, about 250 kilometres (156 miles) from Mogadishu in southern Somalia, was the scene of violent clashes between rival warlords in March over where the government should move when it eventually relocates from exile in Kenya.

 

Hassan Mohamed Nur "Shatigudud," who serves as agriculture minister in the transitional government, was ousted from control of Baidoa in the fighting by Mohamed Ibrahim Habsade, allegedly with backing from Mogadishu warlords.

 

Ethiopia is regarded with deep suspicion by many in Somalia due to its past support for a Somali faction opposed to a new government and many in the lawless nation have vehemently protested the inclusion of Ethiopian troops in a proposed regional peacekeeping mission.

 

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, Ajabe Digaba Walde, denounced the MP's charges as "despicable lies" and said Addis Ababa fully supported the goal of restoring peace and stability to the country after 14 years of anarchy.

 

Somalia has been in chaos without any functioning central authority since the fall of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 turned the nation into a patchwork of fiefdoms ruled by warlords.

 

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Copyright © 2005 Agence France-Presse

Received by NewsEdge Insight: 05/10/2005 09:43:57