U.N. Resolution Angers Somalia Militants
The Associated Press
 
December 07, 2006
 
 International terrorists, opportunists are using some Somali people in
order to destabilize our country and the region Islamic militants in control
of most of southern Somalia warned Thursday that war will erupt over a U.N.
decision authorizing an African force to protect the country's virtually
powerless government.
 
The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved the resolution Wednesday,
hoping to restore peace in Somalia and avert a broader conflict in the
region. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedis welcomed the decision and urged its
immediate implementation.
 
The U.S. resolution, co-sponsored by the council's African members, also
partially lifts an arms embargo on Somalia so the regional force can be
supplied with weapons and military equipment and train the government's
security forces.
 
In a possible indication that countries may be hesitant to contribute
forces, Uganda _ the only country thus far to volunteer troops _ said it may
hold off until the security situation improves. Deputy Defense Minister Ruth
Nankabirwa said the situation had changed since Uganda first backed the
peacekeeping proposal in January 2005.
 
'It may be that we will think of holding off until the terrain is not so
hostile for Ugandan forces,' she said, although she called the lifting of
the arms embargo 'a first step.'
 
The resolution also urged the Islamic militants, who control the capital of
Mogadishu, to stop any further military expansion and join the transitional
government in peace talks.
 
However, peace talks slated for later this month appeared unlikely, with the
Islamic group saying it will now have to reconsider joining any such
dialogue with the Somali government.
 
A spokesman for the Islamic movement said the resolution will introduce
sophisticated weapons into Somalia and provoke a war between his group and
the struggling government.
 
'We see the approval of the resolution as nothing but an evil intention,'
Abdirahin Ali Mudey, spokesman for the Islamic Courts, told The Associated
Press.
 
Mudey accused the Security Council of giving the Somali government's main
ally, Ethiopia, permission to occupy the country.
 
'The international community has proven to be biased and unjust,' he said.
 
The resolution, however, bans Somalia's neighbors from sending soldiers,
which would prohibit participation in the force by troops from Ethiopia,
Djibouti and Kenya.
 
The arms embargo against Somalia was imposed in 1992, a year after warlords
overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another. An
interim government was formed two years ago with the help of the U.N., but
it has struggled to assert its authority against the Islamic militants.
 
There are fears that, without international action, Somalia could become a
proxy battleground for Ethiopia and Eritrea, which fought a border war in
1998-2000.
 
'International terrorists, opportunists are using some Somali people in
order to destabilize our country and the region,' Gedis said in Nairobi, the
capital of neighboring Kenya. 'So the decision by the Security Council must
be immediately implemented.'
 
Ethiopia supported the resolution but said it had come late.
 
'It would have been better if they had approved it nearly two years ago when
it was originally proposed,' said Wahide Belay, acting spokesman for the
Foreign Affairs Ministry.
 
The U.S. has accused Islamic Courts movement, which takes its name from a
system of local religious courts, of harboring al-Qaida suspects.
 
A confidential U.N. report obtained recently by the AP said 6,000-8,000
Ethiopian troops were in Somalia or along the border, supporting the
transitional government. It also said 2,000 soldiers from Eritrea were
inside Somalia, supporting the Islamic militia _ which Eritrea denies.
 
Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu denounced the U.N. resolution as an
'attack on the Somali people.' He also said it provided support for just one
warlord, an indirect reference to Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf's past as
one of the country's major warlords.
 
The authorized force 'is not a peacekeeping force, it is an invasion keeping
force,' Abdu told Al-Jazeera television.
 
The resolution authorizes a seven-nation East African group known as the
Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, and the African Union
to establish 'a protection and training mission in Somalia' for an initial
period of six months.
 
Council diplomats said IGAD envisions a force of eight battalions, each with
700 to 800 troops, but only two would be deployed in the first phase.
 
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Source: Associated Press