Residents of last government stronghold fear more fighting. Meantime, refugee exodus swells.
With the US accusing the Union of Islamic Courts of having links to al-Qaeda, some fear they could end up hosting the next stage of the “war on terror,” with devastating results.
“The government is passively watching as the Islamic militias continue to extend their power into new areas,” said resident Mohamed Bashir Issaq. “I am afraid, one day, the two rivals would wrestle here with the help of foreign powers.”
In the Somali port city of Kismayo, where the UIC took control Monday, a curfew has been put into effect after the UIC opened fire on demonstrators against their new Muslim rulers, Agence France-Presse reports. Residents told AFP that at least two people were killed. The Associated Press reports that machine-gun mounted trucks were used to break up a demonstration by hundreds of women there Tuesday. Relatives said 20 of the protesters were arrested.
AP says the demonstrations also came a day after the Islamic militia’s leader, Hassan Turki, acknowledged for the first time that the group was bolstered by foreign fighters he called “our Muslim brothers.”
The BBC reports the UIC has repeatedly denied having connections to Al Qaeda, and says it is only restoring security and stability to Somalia. But UIC national security chairman Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde says that if Ethiopian troops have entered the country to help the Somali government, it would be construed as a “declaration of war.”
“We call on the international community to urge Ethiopia to withdraw its troops from Somalia. If that doesn’t happen the consequences of insecurity created by Ethiopia will spread to neighbouring countries and to East Africa as a whole.”
CNN reports that although there have been reports that hundreds of Ethiopian troops have crossed the border into Somalia and are stationed in a camp just outside Baidoa, Ethiopia says the UIC is creating a “smokescreen” to cover its own “illegal actions.”
Ethiopia, long the most powerful country in the Horn of Africa, believes the Islamists aspire to taking Ethiopia’s eastern Ogaden region — inhabited by ethnic Somalis — as part of a plan to restore “Greater Somalia.”
Ethiopia has invaded Somalia in the past to attack Islamist radicals, but has consistently denied reports it has sent troops into Somalia to prop up the interim government in the provincial town of Baidoa since the Islamists took Mogadishu.
The Cybercast News Service reports that the Baidoa-based government cannot build a strong army to combat the UIC because of a UN arms embargo on the country, while the Islamists are able to get smuggled weapons from neighboring countries like Eritrea.
A commentary in The Christian Science Monitor suggests that Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi only wants to help Somalia’s government because of the potential aid Ethiopia will receive if it is seen as a partner in the “war on terror.” Mr. Zenawi has seen much of the foreign aid the country used to receive dry up because of allegations of human rights abuses and election fraud, and sees Somalia as a way to get the aid flowing back to Ethiopia.
Zenawi reasons that if his country plays an essential role in supporting Somalia’s transitional government against the UIC, the United States will provide economic and diplomatic support, despite other objections to Ethiopia’s policies. All Zenawi has to do is wait for civil war in Somalia to reignite – an outcome made more likely by his deployment of troops.
But The New York Times reports that in the capital, Mogadishu, the rule of the UIC has been a welcome relief for a city that has been dominated by warring factions since the fall of former president Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The Times says that the UIC is not acting like the Taliban and imposing religious orthodoxy, but instead has softened its views, delivered social services to residents, and is pushing for democratic elections.
It is hard to imagine that this is Mogadishu, the same Mogadishu of “Black Hawk Down,” and clan against clan and 15 years of anarchy. But over the past three months, the Islamists in control here have defied international expectations – in many ways. Not only have they pacified one of the most dangerous cities in the world, they also seem to have moderated their message.
Afrol News, a Norwegian-based news service covering Africa, says that although the resistance to the ideals of the fundamentalist UIC exists in Somalia, residents who disagree with hard-line Islamic rule can’t do much about it.
But also other parts of Somalia under Islamist rule have shown tendencies of protest and disobeyence. The courts’ ban of music, movies and sports angered most intellectuals, but also ordinary citizens. Attempts to take control over independent media have so long mostly been fought back after protests.
For many of those disagreeing with the new Islamist rulers, however, the main choice has been between putting up a pro-Islamist image or fleeing the country. Refugee streams out of Islamist-controlled Somalia have [kept up a steady exodus] for a long time.
Bloomberg News reports that the advance of the number of refugees fleeing Somalia for neighboring Kenya has reached its highest number in a decade, and that a lack of funds to support the refugees will lead to a cut in rations for those being aided in Kenyan refugee camps.
Somalis are arriving in Kenyan camps at a rate of 2,500 every week, adding to the 24,000 already in camps in Dadaab, in northeastern Kenya, the United Nations said.
Without additional funds, rations will be cut in November to 1,900 calories a person every day, instead of the recommended minimum of 2,100 calories. Rations may further decline to 1,700 calories a person by December, the United Nations said.
Reuters reports that despite the recent developments in Kismayo and Baidoa, the Somali government and the UIC are still scheduled to meet in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum at the end of October for a third round of talks.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor, Sept 27, 2006
