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by Emmanuel Goujon
30 November 2006
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Ethiopia's parliament has authorized the government to take "any legal action" against powerful Islamists in neighboring Somalia, ratcheting up fears for war that could engulf the region.
Lawmakers adopted a resolution Thursday that calls the Islamists, now on the brink of war with the weak Ethiopian-backed Somali government, a "clear and present danger" to Ethiopia and gives approval for the government to combat the threat.
The vote came just hours after the Islamists claimed a new attack on Ethiopian troops outside the seat of the Somali government and a day after the Islamists accused Ethiopia of shelling a town they hold near the border.
It also came after worried diplomats at the United Nations called on all nations to respect an 1992 arms embargo on Somalia amid reports of massive military build-ups by the rival parties with embargo violations by ten nations.
"The parliament believes there is a clear and present danger to our country," the resolution said. "The parliament decides that the government can take any legal action against any invasion coming to our country."
The motion was adopted by a 311 to 99 vote with 16 abstentions, amid complaints from the opposition that the resolution is a declaration of war and includes some Ethiopian separatist groups in the threat.
"We see it as a declaration of war," said opposition lawmaker Beyene Petros. "This type of declaration of war, we don't see the situation justifying that kind of declaration."
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi denied the vote meant war but said it have the government leeway to deal with the threat from the Islamists, charging they had allied with arch-foe Eritrea and Ethiopian groups seeking to destabilize Ethiopia.
"From Asmara to Mogadishu they have created a common front on two legs, and in the middle are the Ethiopian groups, forces armed trying to dismantle Ethiopia," he told lawmakers before the vote.
"If the house decides that we have to defend ourselves, it does not mean we will just go to war," Meles said. "We will use every single peaceful way to deal with it in a peaceful manner."
He denies deploying thousands of troops across the border but acknowledges sending military advisers and trainers to assist the internationally backed by largely powerless Somali government.
Mainly Christian Ethiopia has watched with growing concern the rise on its southeastern border of the Islamists, who seized Mogadishu in June and now control most of southern and central Somalia.
With a large ethnic Somali population, Ethiopia fears radicalization of its sizable Muslim minority by the Islamists, some of whom are accused of links to Al-Qaeda, who have imposed strict Sharia law in areas they control.
The resolution noted that the Islamists have "declared jihad on Ethiopia repeatedly" and suggested they want to unite all Somali-speaking people in a "Greater Somalia."
It also accused the Islamists of "training, sheltering and arming Ethiopian groups that are trying to overthrow the government" and collaborating with Eritrea.
Earlier Thursday, the Islamists said they had blown up an Ethiopian military truck and killed its occupants near the Somali government seat of Baidoa, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Mogadishu.
"In praise of Allah, our holy warriors succeeded and destroyed a truck carrying troops," Islamist deputy defense chief Sheikh Mukhta Robow told AFP.
There was no independent confirmation of the incident that he said occurred near Goof-Gaduud, southwest of Baidoa in an area where the Islamists said they ambushed a Ethiopian military convoy this month.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council noted a report from experts that says ten countries are illegally arming the Somali factions, including Ethiopia and Eritrea, and called for complete compliance with the embargo.
The call came even as the council was mulling a US draft resolution that would authorize a regional peacekeeping force to assist the embattled government and ease the embargo to allow it to operate.
The Islamists have vowed to wage jihad against any foreign troops in Somalia and threatened on Tuesday to invite foreign fighters -- believed by many to already be there -- to join the holy war should the US resolution pass.
