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Eritrea demands withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia
(AFP)
27 July 2006
NAIROBI - Eritrea on Thursday called for the speedy withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia, where they have been deployed to protect the countryÂ’s fledgling government, warning that their continued stay risked provoking a regional conflict.
On a government website, Asmara also urged its archfoe Addis Ababa to heed calls by the countryÂ’s increasingly powerful Islamic courts, which control much of southern Somalia and the capital, to leave the shattered Horn of Africa nation, ruined by more than a decade of fighting.
“The government of Eritrea strongly urges all those forces and their backers to promptly stop all acts of invasion being perpetuated to wreck the materialization of a unified Somalia, which can degenerate to the destabilisation and chaos of the whole region as well,” the information ministry said on its website.
“All Somalis are warning beforehand that if the (Ethiopian) regime didn’t return to its own territories, it will be liable for the severe consequences that may ensue,” it added.
Ethiopia has been accused of deploying troops to its southern neighbour to protect its weak government from a possible attack by the Islamists, but both Addis Ababa and the Somali government have denied such accusations despite several eyewitness accounts.
Last weekÂ’s deployment of Ethiopian troops has heightened tensions between the Islamic tribunals and the fragile government, which has accused the courts of plotting an attack against its base in the south-central town of Baidoa.
On Wednesday, the United States urged East African countries to stop intervening in Somalia, after government officials charged that a plane carrying weapons from Eritrea landed in the capital Mogadishu.
But the Islamists refused to comment on the contents of the cargo carried on the Russian-made Ilyushin 76-cargo plane, which that bore emblem of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet state that frequently charters its planes.
“It’s important that Somalia’s neighbors avoid any kind of actions that would prevent these groups from getting together and being able to talk through their differences,” State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
“We certainly don’t want to see—whether it’s Eritrea or Ethiopia or Kazakhstan or any other country—engage or get involved in efforts to support any violence in that country,” he added.
Somalia is home to about 10 million people, and has been without a functioning central authority since strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.
Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea has been strained since they fought a a devastating 1998-2000 war over the ownership of a tiny strip of barren land along their common border.
