Somali Islamist deadline looms
Source: Reuters
By Hassan Yare
BAIDOA, Somalia, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Somalia's government on Monday said it was lining up peacekeeping forces as the interim administration and Islamist rivals sought a diplomatic way to avert a war that many fear could engulf the region.
The Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC), which took Mogadishu in June and controls most of the south, has threatened to fight Ethiopian troops protecting the government in Baidoa if they do not leave by Tuesday, raising war fears to a new high.
Both sides said over the weekend they were still open to dialogue but on the ground the military standoff remained tense as Islamist fighters continued to dig in at positions on three sides of Baidoa, witnesses said.
At some points, government and Islamist troops are just a few kilometres (miles) apart.
Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told parliament in Baidoa, the government's only outpost, that Nigeria's president had pledged troops for a U.N.-backed peacekeeping force to protect the administration.
"Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo promised me that they will send 1,800 peacekeepers to Somalia with their full supplies and will help us financially and politically," he said.
Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys told Reuters last week his fighters did not plan to attack President Abdullahi Yusuf's government but only its "invading" Ethiopian allies.
However Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Ali Mudey played this down on Monday.
"What we meant was that now there are talks between us and the Ethiopians they should remove their troops so that the talks can go ahead smoothly," he said, referring to a recent meeting between Islamist and Ethiopian officials in Djibouti.
"If they don't remove the troops then definitely the talks will collapse. If that happens then we will decide on what action to take."
"JUST PLAIN WORDS"
The Western-backed Somali government says thousands of foreign radicals have bolstered the Islamists' ranks, while Washington last week accused the movement of being run by an al Qaeda cell.
The Islamists, for their part, say the government, formed in Kenya in 2004 in the 14th attempt to restore central rule since 1991, has no popular legitimacy and has allowed more than 30,000 Ethiopian soldiers into Somalia to prop them up.
Addis Ababa says it has only several hundred military trainers in Somalia and has brushed off the Islamist threat to attack.
Analysts say a war in Somalia risks dragging in other Horn of Africa states. Ethiopia's foe Eritrea is said by some to be backing the Islamists and experts say the two countries could use Somalia as a proxy battleground for their long-simmering border feud.
In Baidoa residents were uncertain whether the Tuesday deadline would really bring fresh fighting.
"I see the Islamic courts deadline as just plain words," resident Amin Ibrahim said. "This is not the first time for them to threaten to attack. They promised several times in the past to wage holy war against Ethiopian troops but have not."
Others, who stocked up on provisions as troops tested weaponry last week, say they fear an attack is imminent.
"Whether the Islamic courts attack or they are attacked, I don't see anything that will postpone the war," resident Abdullahi Abdi Mohamed said. "It's just a matter of the troops who are facing off to start firing at each other." (Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed)
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