| Home | Politics | Human Rights | Water | Economy | Education | Sci & Tech | Culture | Sport |
By Guled Mohamed
08 January 2007
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf entered Mogadishu on Monday, capping a remarkable turn-around in the capital Islamists ruled for six months until they were ousted before the New Year.
As Yusuf entered the city that has eluded his government since its formation two years ago, Ethiopian jets and soldiers attacked the remnants of the Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) in the southern tip of Somalia.
Protected by his own soldiers and Ethiopian troops who helped the government drive out the Islamists, the 72-year-old veteran soldier made his first visit to Mogadishu since taking office in 2004 and ruled out talks with his foes.
"The President has arrived. He is now in Villa Somalia," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said. "He urged all Somalis to forget the past and prepare to build their country and support the interim government."
The bullet-scarred Villa Somalia compound is the former palace of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, whose 1991 ouster as Somalia's last national president in 1991 triggered more than 15 years of anarchy.
Yusuf briefly visited the capital in 1994, residents said.
Ethiopian soldiers there twice pointed their assault rifles at a Reuters reporter who visited the scene.
Mogadishu is the official capital of Somalia, but the government had been unable to install itself there first because of warlords in the government who opposed giving up their turf, and later because of the Islamists.
It had been forced to stay in outlying Somali towns, first Jowhar north of the capital and since late April, in the south-central agricultural trading town of Baidoa -- the only area it had controlled until the two-week war.
NEW PEACEKEEPERS
The Ethiopians are expected to pull out of Somalia in a matter of weeks, while an African peacekeeping force is cobbled together to fill the anticipated vacuum in security, which the government admits it cannot handle on its own.
In Addis Ababa, a meeting of the African Union's Peace and Security Council discussed plans for a proposed 8,000-strong deployment, including how it would be funded and which countries would contribute troops.
Somalia's Ambassador to the African Union, Abdikarim Farah, said it was agreed the deployment would go ahead immediately, and would require $150 million for the first six months.
"Seven African countries have showed an interest in providing troops and are awaiting the AU's official request," he said.
Uganda has already agreed to send troops, but parliament must approve it and it is not due to be in session until the end of the month.
"When they come back, it's a priority. They know it needs to be urgently approved," parliament spokeswoman Helen Kawesa said.
Diplomats say South Africa and Nigeria have made murmurs of contributing troops. Farah declined to name the other countries.
The AU is planning to ask the United Nations, Arab League, and European Union to pay for the mission. The United States on Friday said it was contributing $16 million.
NEW FIGHTING
With Ethiopian troops doing most of the heavy lifting, the government has pushed the SICC to the southern tip of Somalia, near the Kenyan border. Witnesses said Ethiopian and Somali troops continued their pursuit on Monday.
"The warplanes this morning struck at a location 18 km (11 miles) from Afmadow where Islamic troops are hiding. So many Ethiopian and government troops driving dozens of military trucks passed there today," resident Hassan Mursal told Reuters.
Defense Minister Barre Aden Shire "Barre Hirale" declined to comment on that and reports a group of Islamists had been cornered at a jungle hideout near the Kenyan border, which has been sealed and trapped thousands of refugees on the other side.
Some of the Islamists have surfaced in Yemen and say they are willing to hold peace talks with the government, but Yusuf on Monday ruled that out.
"With regard to holding talks with the courts, this will not happen," Yusuf told Al Jazeera television in an interview before flying to Mogadishu. "We will crack down on the terrorists in any place around the nation."
The United States, Ethiopia and Yusuf have all accused the Islamists of links to al Qaeda, which they had denied.
Yusuf had stayed out of Mogadishu, where he is an outsider and still has many enemies from his time as warlord based in the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region.
The streets of Mogadishu were under heavy security on Monday, with thousands of mostly Somali soldiers patrolling, after several protests and attacks against Ethiopian troops in recent days.
(Additional reporting by Sahra Abdi Ahmed in Kismayu, Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa and Tim Cocks in Kampala)
Source: Reuters