SALAD DUHUL
Associated Press
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Sheik Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal, head of the Islamic court in the Al-Bayan region, said the troops switched sides there late Saturday. Sheik Bilal told the Associated Press by telephone that the former government soldiers “are ready to be incorporated into the Islamic courts forces.”
The court movement has promised to launch a holy war Tuesday unless troops from neighbouring Ethiopia, who are supporting the government, leave Somalia. Islamic fighters have surrounded the southern Sudanese town of Baidoa, the only town the government controls.
Al-Bayan, where the defections are said to have taken place, is about 80 kilometres from Baidoa.
The government denied Sheik Bilal's claim. “The government has 6,000 strong soldiers who are well trained and well disciplined,” said Salad Ali Jelle, the deputy defence minister.
Tensions have mounted in recent weeks between the government, which has international recognition but little actual authority, and the Islamic courts, which appears to have broad popular support in this strongly Muslim country.
Islamic movement leaders are outraged by the presence of troops from Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation.
Ethiopia fears the emergence of a neighbouring Islamic state and acknowledges sending military advisers to aid Somalia's government, but Ethiopian authorities deny sending combat forces.
The United States has said the Islamic movement has links to al-Qaeda, an accusation Islamic leaders have repeatedly denied.
Also Sunday, two journalists were detained without charge by Islamic forces while trying to board a plane at Mogadishu's airport, the National Union of Somali Journalists said.
The security forces seized the passport and computer of one reporter before taking both men to an undisclosed location, NUSJ official Abdirashid Deylka said. A spokesman for the Islamic courts said he had no immediate details on the case.
Meanwhile, authorities in the semiautonomous region of Puntland released Abdi-Aziz Mohamud Guuleed, a reporter for a local radio station, after 16 days in jail. He was acquitted of charges his stories attacked the Puntland government.
Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew long-time dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into chaos.
A government was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but it has struggled to assert its authority. The network of Islamic courts, meanwhile, has pushed aside the warlords and expanded into a rival quasi-government.
Experts fear the conflict in Somalia could engulf the volatile Horn of Africa. A recent U.N. report said 10 nations have been sending weapons to the warring sides.
War would hit an already devastated country where one in five children dies before the age of 5 from a preventable disease.
The impoverished nation also is struggling to recover from the worst flood season in East Africa in 50 years.
Source: AP, Dec 17, 2006