| June 10, 2008 An unrealistic
United Nations-led initiative to end US sponsored Ethiopian
proxy war Somalia has failed with the country's weak interim
government, fractions of the Islamic Courts Union and some
warlord opposition delegations refusing to meet face-to-face
in Djibouti to try to end 18 years of conflict.
"I made the decision to terminate the conference," UN envoy
for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, told a news conference
in Djibouti late on Sunday.
The Islamist group Al-shaab, the nation's most effective
organization belonging to the Islamic Courts Union, is
boycotting the talks saying they will not negotiate with
Somali corrupt puppet government of traitor Abdullah Yusuf
as long as Ethiopian troops and other foreign forces are on
Somali soil.
Some sources close to the talks say
that the Ethiopian troop's commander in Somalia General
Gabre is at the conference hotel.
Speaking to Shabelle from the
conference venue in Djibouti, YusufAli Aynteh, adviser for
the leader of the opposition Alliance for the Reliberation
of Somalia (ARS), said the talks have been "suspended" by
the UN after the Somali transitional government side refused
to accept the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia.
The UN Somali envoy Ahmedou
Ould-Abdallah said at a news conference in Djibouti that the
talks will be closed without any result, without setting any
date for the resumption of the talks which have been
mediated by the UN, according to reports.
You've Been Warned, Idiots
Islamist resistance leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has
warned the few undisciplined fractions of the Somali Islamic
Courts Union driven by self-serving agenda that the
irrational talks between Somalia's interim government and
the opposition in Djibouti are a waste of time with no
tangible outcome to be accomplished.
Speaking from Asmara, where he lives in exile, the former
army colonel urged his allies from the Alliance for the
Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) attending the peace talks to
walk out.
"I don't expect anything tangible to come out of the
meeting," Aweys (62) told Reuters. "What two or three people
have agreed upon in a short sitting cannot be of good to the
public who have shown their dislike for collaborating with
foreign invaders who have been killing their families
indiscriminatingly. It's just a waste of time."
Most Somalis resent the presence of soldiers from Ethiopia,
Somalia's ancient rival. The government sought Ethiopia's
help to recapture the capital, Mogadishu, in 2006 despite
all fruitless moves by Oul-Abdullah in the most recent
failed international diplomatic initiative to persuade teams
from both sides to come twice to neighbouring Djibouti in
May and this month.
But they declined to meet directly, the sticking point said
to be the presence of Ethiopian invasion troops in Somalia
destabilizing the Horn of Africa with massive arms and
financial supports from Washington and Tel-Aviv.
The so-called delegations were in Djibouti on Monday,
however, and sought to put a softer spin on events than the
UN envoy.
"There was no face-to-face meeting between us and the
government," said Dahir Mohamud Gelle, spokesperson for the
opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS).
"We are on the verge of pulling out of the talks but we feel
that the talks cannot go on if the government insists on its
agenda of keeping the Ethiopian invaders in our country no
matter what instructions and financial gains they pursue
from their backers in the West."
A Somali government spokesperson, Abdi Haji Gobdon, also
expressed fears that the unfeasible initiative had broken
down irretrievably, signaling an end to the negotiations
which had started more than 30 days ago in an effort to pit
weak government troops and their ill-disciplined
Ethiopian invaders conspiring against Islamist resistance
fighters of the courts group led by Sheikh Aweys.
The senior leader of Somalia's popular Islamist
resistance movement of the Union of Islamic Courts reassured
on Sunday commitments to expel invaders and imperialists
United States and their serfs Ethiopian troops by force and
create a prosperous Islamic republic in the war-torn country
on the Horn of Africa.
Sheikh Aweys, who led Somalia's Islamic Courts movement
and who the Bush administration has failed in several plots
to assassinate, said Mogadishu's Western-backed weak and
corrupt transitional regime was run by "traitors".
The 62-year old Sheikh made the comments in a rare
interview at his base in Asmara, the Eritrean capital. To
American dismay, many Somali Islamists resistance fighters
moved to Asmara after the US-Israeli backed Ethiopian
invasion in late 2006 that forced the Islamic Courts' Union
to withdraw in preparation for more sustainable defence of
their lands against enemies both in Mogadishu and southern
Somalia. "I wish to tell my brothers from the
alliance they should come back so that we can first agree
together," the Sheikh said.
"The meeting was hastily planned and the main thorny
issues are not addressed," the resistance popular Sheikh
said, maintaining that dialogue could succeed only if
Somalia was freed from "Ethiopian occupation" and its people
were able to enjoy freedom and justice.
"The UN is not impartial. We don't want to pursue this
[peace] process. Our plan is to continue the struggle. It is
important to expel the enemies from all areas," Sheikh Aweys
said. "We don't want a fight to the death. We don't want to
kill all the Ethiopian invaders. We want to save them. We
want them to leave."
Nearly 2,600 African Union peacekeepers are currently
deployed in Mogadishu. The troops, from Uganda and Burundi,
are part of a planned UN authorized 8,000-strong African
Union peacekeepers.
Other African countries that pledged to contribute did not
send their contingents due to logistical and security
concerns. Plans are underway to replace the African Union
peacekeepers with UN peacekeepers at some later date. |
