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19 January 2007
The president of Eritrea has warned that any efforts to deploy African Union
troops in Somalia would be doomed to failure.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Isaias Afewerki also said that
the African country has not seen the last of the Council of Islamic Courts.
The group was forced to flee its strongholds in the south of the country,
including the capital Mogadishu, by Somali government troops with the support
of Ethiopian forces in a war launched just before Christmas.
Afewerki's comments came as a senior UN envoy held talks in Mogadishu on Thursday
with Abdullahi Yusuf, the Somali president, to discuss the deployment of African
peacekeepers.
Meanwhile, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, the recently ejected speaker of Somalia's
parliament, said on Thursday that the east African nation risked sliding into
dictatorship and accused Abdullahi Yusuf, the Somali president, of seeking
to rule by force and fear.
Adan told Reuters in an interview in Rome: "There is a dictatorship risk
and some of the elements are already in place, such as the emergency legislation.
The president believes he can rule by force. ... He will try to rule the country
alone, with the help of Ethiopian troops.
"He is cleansing out those elements who are against his point of view,
not just me but also other members of parliament who oppose him."
Bitter enemies
African and Western diplomats are trying to rally a peacekeeping force of
at least 8,000 troops to restore calm in the country and avoid the creation
a power vacuum.
Ethiopia wants to withdraw it forces from the country within weeks.
However, Afewerki, whose country has maintained a bitter enmity with its
neighbour since independence in 1991, said Ethiopia has become involved in
a "quagmire".
A border dispute and fragile truce between Eritrea and Ethiopia has lasted
for four decades.
In an interview with Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons broadcast on Thursday, the
Eritrean president said that no one had been defeated yet in Somalia.
Afewerki said: "The Islamic Courts have not been defeated, the Somalis
have never been defeated. People who have wanted to intervene for their own
agendas in Somalia have put themselves in a very serious circumstance.
"This is a quagmire and time will tell who has been defeated and what
we witnessed evolve the last few weeks."
AU criticism
Afewerki has openly supported the Islamic courts in their conflict with the
Somali government, but denies sending any troops and rejects suggestions that
the group's recent defeat was a defeat for Eritrea.
"We have all along supported Somalis everywhere. We have not discriminated,
we wish Somalis peace and stability after 15 years of chaos, we want to see
peace," he said.
Afewerki said the AU lacked the "organisational capability" to deploy
effectively in Somalia.
"We need to know what will be the mission and second, how would the African
Union which is proved to have failed in other parts [of Africa]."
'Best opportunity'
Meanwhile, Francois Fall, an envoy for the UN, has urged the Somali government
to work towards reconciliation saying a peacekeeping force represented "the
best opportunity for peace for 16 years in Somalia" and must not be wasted.
Amid continuing criticism over the controversial sacking of the parliament's
speaker on Wednesday, the envoy told the Somali president on Thursday that
it was vital for his government to engage in dialogue with all sides.
The government, however, defended the speaker's removal, calling it as a decision
for the Somali people and no one else.
Mohammed Adow, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Mogadishu, said that despite
the talk of an AU force deployment in Somalia by the end of the month, only
Uganda has made a clear commitment to send troops.
He said that since a US attack in the southern tip of the country aimed at
alleged al-Qaeda suspects, countries such as South Africa and Nigeria have
become hesitant over getting involved in an AU force as any sending of troops
could seen as endorsing the US-led war on terror.
Source: Al Jazeera