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Ethiopian army to stay in Somalia for weeks
2007-01-02
Ethiopian troops will stay for now in Somalia to help the victorious government pacify the Horn of Africa nation after a two-week war to oust militant Islamists, both countries said on Tuesday. Tightening the net on defeated Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) fighters fleeing south, neighboring Kenya said it had closed its porous and long northeastern border and hosted Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf for security talks. A triumphant Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi -- who lauded his troops for turning the war against the Islamists -- said his forces would only stay "for a few weeks" while the government pacifies the chaotic nation. His planes, tanks and troops helped the Somali interim government drive out the Islamists from Mogadishu last week, after breaking free from its provincial outpost Baidoa to end six months of Islamist rule across much of southern Somalia. "It is up to the international community to deploy a peacekeeping force in Somalia without delay to avoid a vacuum and the resurgence of extremists and terrorists," Meles said. In Mogadishu -- where the interim government set up gun collection points at the start of a drive to disarm one of the world's most dangerous cities -- Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said Ethiopian troops may in fact stay for months. "The Ethiopians will leave when they clear terrorists and pacify Somalia. It will be ... weeks and months, not more." The Somali government also called for an African peacekeeping mission -- endorsed by the United Nations before the war -- to be deployed as soon as possible. Uganda has provisionally offered a battalion but said on Tuesday it was unwilling to deploy unless its mission and exit strategy were clearly defined. Nigeria may also help. The U.S.-backed Contact Group on Somalia is due to meet in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the situation. Despite the Islamists' surprisingly quick flight, analysts and diplomats say the conflict may be far from over. The Islamists, joined by some foreign fighters, may launch an Iraqi-style insurgency against a government they see as propped up by a hated and Christian-led foreign power. Gedi said Eritrean, Ethiopian rebel and Arab fighters had been taken prisoner during the recent fighting in "a clear sign foreign fighters are involved." The government has offered an amnesty to Somali fighters, -- some of whom the government says have been in touch -- but insists captured foreigners will face the courts. "NO SACRED COWS" The government has told Mogadishu residents to hand over their weapons by Thursday or be forcibly disarmed. "There will be no sacred cows," said Information Minister Ali Jama. Gedi, who added that Somalia had re-opened its airspace, said many had flocked to collection points, but at one seen by Reuters, not a single gun had been handed in. Traders said gun prices had gone up and some were still buying weapons. The interim government's legitimacy hinges on installing itself in the capital and restoring central rule for the first time since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The task is complicated by the return of warlords hoping to restore fiefdoms they ran before the SICC -- which pacified Mogadishu by enforcing sharia, Islamic law -- chased them out. Despite a U.N. arms embargo, the war-scarred capital on the Indian Ocean is one of the world's most gun-infested cities. Speaking from a hideout, SICC spokesman Abdirahim Ali Mudey poured scorn on the government's disarmament drive, saying it would be unable to unite Somalia's clan-based society. "Some clans will fight back because trust does not yet exist," Mudey said by telephone, without revealing his location. After fleeing their last stronghold in the southern port of Kismayu on Monday in the face of an Ethiopian bombardment, Islamist fighters and leaders have moved further south. "Anyone who hands in his weapon will be forgiven," Somalia's defense minister, Colonel Abdikadir Adan Shire, also known as Barre Hiraale, told a huge victory rally in Kismayu on Tuesday. Kenya said it was trying to keep fleeing fighters out. "The border with Somalia has been closed and some have been prevented from entering into our side. In fact about 100 people have been sent back," Ananiah Mwaboza, Kenya's assistant minister for immigration, told Reuters. Residents say some Islamist fighters have re-grouped in the hilly Buur Gaabo region, just on the Somali side of the border. U.S. warships were patrolling off Somalia to stop SICC leaders or foreign militant supporters escaping, diplomats said. (Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu; Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa; George Obulutsa, Nico Gnecchi, David Mageria, Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi)
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