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TFG President Says Peace Talks With Fundamentalists No Longer an Option

The Ethiopian Herald (Addis Ababa)
NEWS
December 17, 2006
Posted to the web December 17, 2006

By ENA
Addis Ababa
Peace talks with Somalia's fundamentalist movement are no longer an option, the
president of the country's Transitional Federal Government said Friday.
The President, Abdullahi Yusuf, warned that the group is allowing al-Qaeda
terrorists to "set up shop" in the Horn of Africa, Associated Press reported
from Baidoa.
"This is a new chapter and part of the terror group's plan to wage wars"
President Abdullahi told The Associated Press.
"The fighting can happen at any time now," Abdullahi said, adding that peace
talks were impossible now that the terrorists' leaders have declared war on his
government.
The sides have held several rounds of talks in Khartoum, Sudan, but have failed
to produce any lasting effect, according to the report.
"They are the ones who effectively closed the door to peace talks and they are
the ones who are waging the war," Abdullahi said of the Fundamentalists
leadership, noting that his administration would not attack first.
"We are not under the illusion that peace is possible," the report quoted
Abdullahi as saying.
The president said his government was the only legitimate authority in Somalia.
"It is totally misguided not to accept the government," he said, adding: "The
alternative is chaos."
Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew Dictator
Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into anarchy. The government
was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations.
War would hit an already devastated country where one in five children die
before age 5 from preventable diseases. The impoverished nation also is
struggling to recover from the worst flood season in East Africa in 50 years.
In September, President Abdullahi survived a suicide car bomb attack - the
first of its kind in Somalia - that killed his younger brother. The president
blamed al-Qaeda and said it only strengthened his resolve to defeat terrorist
extremism.
Late Friday, an explosion rocked the capital, Mogadishu, which is controlled by
the fundamentalists' leadership, but the cause was not immediately known.
Meanwhile, the leader of the fundamentalists' group in Somalia, Sheikh Hassen
Dahir Aweys said his group is obliged to attack Ethiopians where ever they are,
Reuters reported.
The fundamentalists group under the Union of Islamic Courts also said it will
open its door for terrorists, according to the London-based Arabic language
Asherq Al-Awsat newspaper.
The report said there is an increased fear of a new war in the conflict ridden
nation, and the fighting could quickly spread into a regional war.
U.S Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said Thursday the
fundamentalists were becoming more radical.
"The Council of Islamic Courts is now controlled by ...east Africa Al Qaeda
cell individuals. The top layer of the court are extremists. They are
terrorists," she said.
Frazer cited the recent murder of an Italian catholic nun in Mogadishu, and
terrorists' deceleration of war against Ethiopia.
A laborer and father-of-three Said Ali Ahmed said, "I am afraid when war breaks
out, roads will be closed and food is going to be unaffordable."
"I don't know where to take my family. When war starts here, it will be
everywhere and most of the roads will be mined," he added.


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