Garowe Online (Garowe)

Somalia: MPs Criticize Ethiopia Detention of Mogadishu's Ex-Mayor

6 January 2009

Members of Somalia's federal parliament have criticized the continued detention of ex-Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed "Dheere" Omar by Ethiopian troops, Radio Garowe reports.

MP Yusuf Mohamed "Gurow" told reporters in Baidoa Tuesday that a group of lawmakers have met and issued a call for the Ethiopian government to release Mr. Mohamed Dheere.

"We condemn Mohamed Dheere's arrest, which we see as unjustified," MP Gurow said in Baidoa, seat of the country's interim federal parliament.

Mohamed Dheere, a former warlord, was arrested by Ethiopian soldiers on Dec. 31 in Mogadishu and Somali MPs now say the detained ex-mayor is now being held in Baidoa, under the guard of Ethiopian troops.

Local reports have indicated that Somali Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein ordered Mohamed Dheere's arrest, after the latter refused to surrender his weapons over to the interim government.

Ethiopia has pledged to withdraw all its troops from Somalia in the coming weeks but remains a powerful player in the Horn of Africa country's politics.

Tagged: Arms and Armies, Conflict, East Africa, Ethiopia, Human Rights, Peacekeeping, Somalia

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