Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Just hours after the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to authorize an African Union force to help stabilize Somalia, one insurgent leader said they will fight any foreign troops who are sent into the country.
"The U.N. should keep its hand off our country because the Islamic forces are ready to fight any foreign troops whether they are blue helmet or black helmet," said the insurgent leader, who asked to be identified only as Osman and who claimed to be part of a newly formed extremist group called the Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations.
The U.N. hopes the 8,000-member African Union force can stabilize the country following the ouster earlier this year of a radical Islamic movement that controlled much of southern Somalia since June.
The deployment is also meant to prevent a vacuum of power and allow the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces that supported Somalia's weak transitional government in battles against the Islamic militia fighters.
The peacekeepers will have to confront the growing violence that has plagued the capital, Mogadishu, since the battle with the Islamic Courts Union.
Fifteen people were killed and 45 wounded on Tuesday in deadly crossfire between Somali government forces and Ethiopian troops battling against radical elements of the ousted Islamist group.
Hundreds of families have begun fleeing the capital and hospitals say they are struggling to cope with the daily influx of wounded.
Meanwhile, the city's powerful warlords are said to be buying new weaponry.
The U.N. resolution urges the 53 African nations to contribute troops to the 8,000-member force and urges other U.N. member states to provide financial support and any needed personnel, equipment and services.
The deployment is also intended to set the stage for U.N. peacekeepers to take over the long-term job of bringing peace to the Horn of Africa nation.
Mogadishu's escalating violence threatens to plunge Somalia back into the years of anarchy and chaos that dogged the nation after 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, igniting a 16-year conflict.
Numerous attempts at restoring order have failed. The transitional government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help, but has had little authority because it has no real army or police force.
"I really welcome the U.N. move," said Khadija Ulusow, a businesswoman in the coastal city of 2 million people. "We are tired of war, enough is enough."
Others were critical of the U.N. move. Some said they saw links between the deployment of peacekeepers and the government's troublesome alliance with Ethiopia, a country that fought a war with Somalia and remains unpopular here.
"The U.N. is just serving the interests of our arch enemy Ethiopia to consolidate its grip on our country. That is unfair and unbecoming of a world body meant to be neutral," said 64-year-old Abu Ali Yarow.
The AU force's first troops, a small Burundian advance team, were scheduled to be on the ground as early as Friday. Uganda canceled a Wednesday news conference without explanation at which it planned to announce a date for deployment of its force.
Nigeria, however, reiterated its commitment to establishing stability in Somalia, saying Tuesday that its 850 troops should arrive by mid-April.
The new violence has raised questions about the deployment. Insurgents have staged near-daily attacks. Mogadishu's civilian population has borne the brunt of the violence, which has killed 51 people and wounded more than 100 in the last three weeks. Ethiopian troops, largely seen as an occupying Christian force, have been accused of indiscriminate attacks against civilian-populated areas.
Somalia's infamous warlords have begun rearming themselves, buying weapons at Mogadishu's main weapons bazaar, known as Irtokte, according to arms traders.
"Brokers representing five warlords ... have been buying weapons from here for the last two months," said arms dealer Socotoy Sheikh Mohamed. "They bought more than 300 heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons," he said.
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Associated Press Writer Mohamed Sheik Nor contributed to this report.
Source: AP, Feb 21, 2007