Addis Abbaba (Sudan Times) – Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he
is against the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops in the current conditions from Somalia.
He pointed out that this move means sabotaging sacrifices paid to stabilize the
neighboring country.
Speaking on Tuesday 23 October at the 4th regular meeting of the
House of Peoples’ Representatives Meles said total and immediate pull out of
the Ethiopian army in Somalia
under the circumstances would have been tantamount to sabotaging the sacrifices
paid by the army and also rendering valueless Ethiopia’s
contributions for peace in Somalia.
Responding to questions concerning the relation of Ethiopia with Somalia,
Meles said the Ethiopian army was deployed to Somalia as per a request made by
the Transitional Federal Government.
"So, rushing to pull out the army immediately would have
entailed a situation for the already dismantled forces of terror in Somalia to
regroup, and thereby to render void the sacrifices already made by the
Ethiopian army." He said
Somali troops, with crucial aid from neighboring Ethiopia, drove the Council of Islamic Courts
out of the capital and the southern Somalia in an offensive that began
late last December. But many Somalis resent the presence of Ethiopian forces. Somalia, a Muslim country, and Ethiopia, which
has a large Christian population, fought a brutal war in 1977.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had announced in January
2007 the withdrawal of its troops from Somalia two weeks after after
helping the Somali interim government rout Islamists in a two-week war.
The United States
and Ethiopia have portrayed
the Islamists as linked to and even run by al Qaeda, putting Somalia firmly
on the map of the U.S.-led war against terrorism.
Somali Islamists took control of the capital Mogadishu in June 2006 and had imposed sharia
law across much of the south.
Source: Sudan
Times, Oct 25, 2007