Monday, June 19, 2006
AFP
Government agents detained two radio journalists for several hours for reporting that Ethiopian troops had entered Somalia, a station official said.
The leader of the Islamic militia that seized Somalia’s capital had independently said he had received similar reports.
Shabelle Radio journalists Mohamed Addawe and Ali Jey were held for about eight hours in Baidoa on Sunday before being released, station director Abdimalik Yusuf said.
Yusuf said he had appealed to ministers of President Abdullahi Yusuf’s government for the journalists’ release. The radio director, who is not related to the president, did not say whether the journalists had been interrogated.
He said the station aired their reports on Saturday and early on Sunday, sourced independently of Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s claims on Saturday that 300 Ethiopian soldiers had entered the country to help his rivals.
Ahmed said he promised not to attack the weak government that represented his only challenge.
An Ethiopian official denied Ahmed’s claims, but said his government had massed troops along the border and was monitoring the Islamic militants’ advance across the country.
Ahmed said the Ethiopian troops entered the country on Saturday morning through the southwestern border town of Dolow.
Meanwhile in Addis Ababa, a senior African Union official, El Ghassim Wane, said the organisation’s Peace and Security Council would meet on Monday to decide the details of a peacekeeping mission.
Somalia’s parliament voted on Wednesday for peacekeepers to help the government try to establish itself.
Source: AFP, June 19, 2006
