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Somalia: Government Soldiers? Surrender to the Islamists - Spokesman
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Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
25 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008
The spokesman of the Islamic courts union sheikh Ibrahim Suley has announced that several soldiers with armed vehicle deserted from Somali government have given in their islamist fighters on Friday.
Is a telephone news conference he held for the local media Sheikh Suley has stated that unnumbered soldiers with gunship vehicle have give in to the Islamic courts and he added that would be parts of the Islamic fighters fighting against Somali government and Ethiopian troops in Somalia.
He further said that the defected soldiers from the TFG couldn’t endure a plight they faced from the government that caused them to run off from the government as he put it.
The fighting was one of the fiercest in the Islamist stronghold of northern Mogadishu where the government and its Ethiopian allies are trying to flush out the remnants of a sharia courts movement ousted from the capital at the end of 2006.
He lastly called for the government troops to unite with their fighters.
“We call for them to repent for Allah and join in the Islamic revolution” he heatedly said.
The surrendered troops were parts of Heliwa district soldiers where one of the heaviest battles between the Ethiopian allied government troops and armed islamist fighters occurred last week that left more than one hundred and wounded hundreds of others.
The interim administration is struggling to contain deepening Islamist-led deadly battles involving near-daily attacks on allied Somali-Ethiopian troops.
The Horn of Africa nation of nine million people has suffered constant violence since the 1991 fall of a military dictator. Ethiopia sent thousands of troops in 2006 to help the Western-backed interim government oust Islamists from Mogadishu.
Saying it was impossible to verify facts on the ground without a permanent U.N. presence, Ould-Abdallah called for the world body's mainly Kenyan-based offices dealing with Somalia to be moved into the country, with proper security.
"We cannot, for 18 years, be sitting in Nairobi and say we will work on Somalia ... by remote control," he said.
"Either we move closer to the victims of abuse, of violence, of drought, of famine ... Or we give up on Somalia and devote these resources to other places."
The envoy saw little prospect of a U.N. peacekeeping force in Somalia until there was internal political progress.
"This will not happen if we don't have a group of Somalis who have the courage to sit together and make that minimum agreement," he said. "The U.N. has so many things on its plate. They are requested and welcome in many other places, so I don't see them rushing to Somalia unless there is minimum stability."
A small 1,800-strong African Union force, mainly Ugandans, has done little to stem violence in Somalia, though it has won plaudits for providing medical care and securing areas like Mogadishu's port and presidential palace.
Ould-Abdallah said the awkward truth was that some Somali leaders were "comfortable" with perpetuating war for selfish motives, despite the immense suffering to the population.
He criticised the international community for its "neglect, terrible abandonment" of Somalia, particularly on failing to pursue justice for war crimes as it had done in places like Ivory Coast, Cambodia or former Yugoslavia.
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"I have not seen anyone put on the blacklist ... or sanctions against criminals and their foreign associates, people sending weapons," he said.
I noticed two discrepancies in this article. The first was a failure to mention the peace and expansion of business that ensued after the Western installed warlords were evicted from the capital by the ICU. The second error is the statement that the Ethiopian troops evicted the ICU from the capital. If we think back to that time we can remember that the ICU voluntarily left the city to prevent the destruction caused by an Ethiopian assault on the city. This is not meant to take sides or promote one side over the other. My only interest is... [Read Full Text]
Man, what did you expect them to say? We're running for our lives? We're defeated? We lost? Ofcourse they said it was a 'strategic withdrawal.' That's what they all say. Ask the Eritreans.
it was a strategic withdrawl, and apparently it worked. they melted into the population or moved south in anticipation of re-emerging after ethiopia withdrew it's invasion force and begin a guerria war. It seems to have been the correct move given the vastly superior forces arrayed against them by Ethiopia/United States.
The comments by the Head of the UN for Somalia, that "we cannot continue to operate by remote control from Nairobi for 18 years" is the most direct and honest statement coming out of Nairobi for the past 18 years. Most Somalis, common Somali citizens, have wanted cooperation and peace since the fall of Siad Barre in the early 90's. The Western powers have backed the wrong horses so consistently that one wonders if those Westerners, "diplomats and development experts" living in well protected and cushy neighborhoods in Nairobi aren't working for the "Sustainability" of chaos in their... [Read Full Text]
what needs to happen for the ICU to be recognized as a legitimate government? The ICU seems like the best hope for peace in Somalia. Better yet it seems like an anti-statist alternative the "government" backed by the U.S.
I think the ICU might find some itellectual/ideological support from the anarcho-capitalist community in the US.
I would like to learn more about the ICU and if it is worthy; how it might become letigimized not only, as is already the case apparently, by the people of Somalia; but also by the people of the West.
equality7252117@yahoo.com
Dear Prof. Dr It is a wonderful proposal to UN. I agree with your point that Ethiopia should be divided in to small kingdoms having population not more than 5.0 million each. This will promote peace, democracy, economic growth and good governance in the region. Because it is easier to manage small, weak and fragmented nations than the bulkier ones like Ethiopia. If this proposal is successful and accepted by UN, Ethiopia will be nearly 40 small and oppressed nations who will live in harmony among themselves. Eritrea, once part of Ethiopia, has taken the led to be an independent... [Read Full Text]
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