Thursday, July 27, 2006
BBC NEWS
Ethiopia and Eritrea have been warned not to interfere in neighbouring Somalia by the UN and United States.
The State Department said they should avoid actions that might harm peace talks whilst a UN envoy said he did not want to see them fight a proxy war.
The warnings follow reports that Eritrea sent a plane-load of weapons to help the Islamic Courts militia which controls much of southern Somalia.
Ethiopian troops have been seen at the weak interim government’s Baidoa base.
“There are external parties involved on all sides,” said the US State Department’s Jendayi Frazer. “This is a problem.”
United Nations envoy Francois Fall says he thinks reports of 4,000-5,000 Ethiopian troops in Somalia are exaggerated , but he said there were indications are that there are some Ethiopian troops around Baidoa and some in Wajid – another central town.
“Ethiopia is saying that some dissidents are working with Islamist groups, and that it is a pre-emptive action they are taking, by sending some people inside Somalia to protect their border,” he told the BBC.
Fears
Earlier this week he visited Baidoa and Mogadishu in an attempt to get the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and the transitional government together for talks in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.
There are fears that Somalia could end up a battleground between Ethiopia and Eritrea – who fought a two-year border war between 1998 and 2000.
Analysts say neither Eritrea nor Ethiopia would want to see a regime in Somalia hostile to their interests.
Islamic court leaders have ruled out further discussions while Ethiopian troops remain in Somalia.
President Abdullahi Yusuf’s government has little influence outside its base in Baidoa, but has the diplomatic support of the UN and the African Union (AU) and the strong backing of neighbouring Ethiopia.
He has repeatedly called for peacekeeping troops to be sent to bolster his government, but the UIC strongly opposes their deployment.
Mr Fall called on neighbouring countries to exercise maximum restraint and “not to interfere at this particular moment in Somalia”.
He also praised the impact of the Islamic courts on the streets of the capital, Mogadishu, where road blocks or gunmen are now not seen on every street corner.
Source: BBC, July 27, 2006
