The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
Monday, August 21, 2006
On the eve of the meeting of IGAD chiefs of staff to facilitate the deployment of an IGAD peace support mission in Somalia, Fiseha Shawel, Head of Somalia desk in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs speaks with The Reporter on the developments in Somalia and Ethiopia’s position in that regard. Excerpts:
In recent times the international community has been expressing its concern about the developments in Somalia. Ethiopia in particular has been expressing its worries that the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) is a threat to the internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and to itself. Despite such expressions of concern however, practical measures of support have not been forthcoming from the international community, why in your opinion is the reason for this?
And when you come to Baidowa where you have the TFG, the whole region which is called Bai and Bokol it is quite peaceful,. They have their administration.
And when you go down to Kismago and Geddo, the border with Kenya and also with Ethiopia they are more or less ok, they are part of the federal government structure, although there is not a full-fledged structure reaching every district and every village.
Then you come to Mogadishu and its environs where the Islamic Courts Union control. We are now sure that they want to establish a strict version of the Sharia whose version is somehow new to Somalis.
It is not of the Sufi tradition. The Sufi is more familiar to Ethiopia and the Somali Muslims.
While the general situation is such as I have said, the latest development there is that the UIC want to capture peaceful administrations particularly Galkayo but I doubt they can do that because the Puntland administration is in a better position to defend itself.
In addition some days ago, local UIC supporters, extremists ejected the governor in the town Beletweyne and took over his office. I do not think people would like the UIC to take over, or they do not want any escalation of the conflict in that region. So this is the situation.
As to the international community, it unanimously considers the TFG as legitimate. It considers it as the only legitimate government of Somalia.
This is because the international community has helped to establish this government in Nairobi since 2002 until it was formed in 2004.
The United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, IGAD and its entire member states, the Arab League and in addition the International Partners Forum where you have all the big powers participating in the meeting.
From the bignning to the end the conference was open to everybody to comment and constructively engage with the Somalis.
Yes, however accepted as legitimate, the international community has not -except express its concerns- taken any practical measures to protect this government. For example Eritrea despite all this continues to arm and support a group that undermines the TFG…
The position of Eritrea is always very difficult to understand for everybody. They are part of the IGAD system and they have observed and contributed to the establishment of the TFG, they were fully part of the facilitation committee of the IGAD when the peace process was ongoing in Nairobi. They however were also waiting for an opportune moment to spoil what was achieved. Eritrea has now become a problem to the Somalis nation and to the international community.
There is a way that has been agreed upon and that is the TFG is legitimate. And if there is any party in Somalia which wants to negotiate we should help dialogue among the Somalis while strengthening the TFG. But what Eritrea did is that it took side with the UIC believing that this force is against Ethiopia. They also believe that the UIC is against the international community that it is especially against the Americans. Eritrea I think is not happy with the United States.
American diplomats are not allowed to move around freely outside Asmara. The same is true to Eritrean diplomats in the US and in Europe.
The problem, as I see it, between Eritrea and the US is that the Eritreans think that the US is supporting Ethiopia better than them.
Source: The Reporter, Aug 21, 2006
