[dehai-news] (Garowe Online):- Somalia: Ethiopia leader 'must admit defeat': al Shabaab


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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Oct 28 2008 - 05:12:24 EST


      Somalia: Ethiopia leader 'must admit defeat': al Shabaab
      28 Oct 27, 2008 - 10:46:47 AM

MOGADISHU, Somalia Oct 27 (Garowe Online) - A spokesman for an Islamist guerrilla group waging war in central and southern Somalia has declared that the insurgency will continue despite yesterday’s peace deal. Full story

Muktar Robow “Abu Mansur,” spokesman for al Shabaab insurgents, was flanked by masked gunmen as he addressed the media in person for the first time since Ethiopian troops ousted Islamic Courts rulers from Mogadishu in December 2006.

“I say [Ethiopian Prime Minister] Meles Zenawi must admit defeat, because he found people who hide his defeat after his power was severely weakened,” Abu Mansur said.

     
      Abu Mansur in the middle

He rejected the peace agreement signed in Djibouti between the Ethiopian-backed Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and a faction of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) saying: “We will continue attacks on Ethiopian and African Union forces.”

Abu Mansur indicated that the TFG-ARS peace pact is “an agreement of lies,” citing a clause that called on Ethiopian troops to “relocate” from specific areas in Mogadishu and Beletwein cities.

“Except for places mentioned [in the Agreement], Ethiopian troops can stay at other places, right?” Abu Mansur asked. Read Full Agreement

He strongly rejected a proposal detailed in the Agreement, which called on the TFG and ARS to establish a 10,000-strong joint security force to patrol Mogadishu alongside AU peacekeepers.

“By Allah, the Mujahideen will not stay at same military base with them [Somali government troops and AU peacekeepers],” said Abu Mansur.

'Intensify the jihad'

A written declaration published online and signed by Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar stated that the Djibouti Agreement “does not concern Islamic Courts administrators on the ground.”

The six-point declaration said the Islamic Courts fighters “will not obey implementation of the decisions” reached at the Djibouti peace talks between the TFG and the ARS opposition group.

“The [Djibouti] Agreement is intended to disgrace the integrity and principles of the Mujahideen because it was decided to combine [the forces of] the Mujahideen, the enemy of the Somali people and their puppets,” read the declaration.

Sheikh Abdulkadir, who is deputy chairman of the Islamic Courts’ executive committee, urged insurgents across Somalia to “intensify the jihad” and to “be wary of the enemy’s conspiracies.”

ARS Chairman Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who is executive chief of the Islamic Courts, has welcomed the Djibouti Agreement and called on insurgent groups to abide by the ceasefire.

But Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, Sheikh Sharif's co-leader during the Islamists' rise to power in mid-2006, also rejected the peace deal and vowed that the war will continue "until the last Ethiopian soldier leaves Somalia."

Based in Eritrea, Sheikh Aweys leads a rival faction of the ARS that has refused to join the peace process and has demanded the establishment of an Islamic state following Ethiopia's withdrawal.

Addis Ababa's response

     
      U.S.-trained Ethiopian soldiers

An Ethiopian Foreign Ministry official was quoted by international media Monday as welcoming the TFG-ARS peace deal.

"The agreement is in line with the Ethiopian position on orderly troop withdrawal," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wahide Belay, according to a AFP report. Full story

An unknown number of Ethiopian troops – military experts estimate between 30,000 and 60,000 – deployed in Somalia to help install the TFG in Mogadishu, where Islamists enjoyed popular support after securing the violent capital from warlords.

An Islamist-led insurgency erupted days after the Ethiopian army conquered Mogadishu, with street fighting, roadside bombings and assassinations.

Upwards of 9,500 people have died during the conflict and nearly 1 million civilians displaced from their homes in different parts of Somalia, according to human rights groups and aid agencies.

Uncertainty

Peace has been elusive in Somalia for nearly two decades. Since 1991, when the Horn of Africa country's last national government collapsed, there have been at least 14 peace conferences.

Critics worry that it is unlikely for an effective ceasefire to be implemented in Somalia as long as heavily-armed insurgent groups like al Shabaab defiantly oppose peace overtures.

Conflicting statements being issued by Islamist splinter groups inside the country is another indication that the Islamic Courts' chain of command has been broken, as a fractured movement struggles to deal with the realities of a new day.

The signed agreement made no mention of Baidoa, a town located 250km northwest of Mogadishu, which has the second-largest concentration of Ethiopian forces deployed in Somalia.

Islamist groups now control many towns and regions in Somalia, including the southern port town of Kismayo and the town of Jowhar, 90km north of Mogadishu.


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