Joint Islamic Courts Warns Ethiopia, US Seeks Dialogue

“We ask them to go (back) to their country. If not, the Somali people will stand up firmly in the face of the invaders,” said Ahmad.

MOGADISHU — The Joint Islamic Courts, which have defeated US-backed warlords and now control several cities in Somalia, confirmed on Sunday, June 18, that Ethiopian troops had crossed into southwestern Somalia and that it was officially notified of Washington’s desire to enter into a dialogue to stabilize the Horn of Africa country.

“We ask them to go (back) to their country. If not, the Somali people will stand up firmly in the face of the invaders,” JIC leader Sheikh Shariff Sheikh Ahmad told a news conference in Jowhar, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Mogadishu.

Ahmad said that some 300 Ethiopian troops crossed into southwestern Somalia on Saturday, June 17, apparently to counter his increasingly powerful group.

Well-placed sources told IslamOnline.net Saturday that Ethiopian troops reached Baidoa, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the capital and seat of the Ethiopia-backed interim government of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad.

They said that an intelligence and military Ethiopian delegation has arrived in Baidoa and held talks with the interim premier, who rejected JIC overtures to negotiate.

Addis Ababa has denied sending troops into Somalia, saying it had instead boosted troops along the borders to deter any potential “provocations” from the JIC.

Transitional government officials said the transmission of the Shabelle radio station, the only Mogadishu-based channel that broadcasts in Baidoa, has been stooped after it broadcast the Ethiopian intervention report on Saturday.

On Tuesday, June 6, well-placed sources expected Ethiopia and the US to intervene militarily in Somalia especially after the JIC fighters seized full control of Mogadishu.

US for Dialogue

In another development, a source close to the JIC told IOL that the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, has officially notified the courts of Washington’s desire to enter into a dialogue to stabilize the country.

The source said a US delegation is expected to arrive soon in Mogadishu to tackle with JIC leaders a host of issues that are a cause for concern to Washington, chiefly the reported presence of foreign terrorists loyal to Al-Qaeda in the country.

The courts denied there were any foreign terrorists or extremists in their midst.

“If you can find a terrorist, let us know. If we find one we are very much prepared to hand him over,” Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar told foreign journalists in Mogadishu on Friday, June 16.

“There are no foreign terrorists in Mogadishu.”

Since February, the JIC has led a series of battles against the US-backed the warlord Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), which ruled Mogadishu and parts of Somalia since the ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

After seizing Mogadishu early this month, the JIC fighters swiftly marched northwards, overrunning Jowhar in Middle Shabelle region and a string of other small outposts in Hiiraan region without heavy resistance.

US government officials and experts have said that secret funding by the CIA for the warlord alliance has backfired, empowering the same groups the Bush administration has sought to marginalize.

A US-inspired international group on Somalia met in the UN on Thursday, June 15, to discuss a unified strategy on the country following the victory of the JIC.

The meeting brought together representatives from the US, Norway, Britain, Sweden, Italy and the EU.

But the Arab League, the pan-Arab umbrella body in which Somalia is a member, was excluded.

The US led a military intervention into Somalia in 1992 but withdrew two years later after Black Hawk helicopters were shot down and the bloodied corpses of US servicemen dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. A UN peacekeeping force also failed.

Washington has invested considerable military and intelligence resources in the Horn of Africa, starting with a base in Djibouti, and is known to operate in tandem with local security services.

Source: Islamic Online, June 18, 2006