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Yemen to Create Peace Talks Between Islamists And Ethiopia

Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
NEWS
December 18, 2006
Posted to the web December 18, 2006

By Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu
Reports from Yemen where Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts chairman Sheik
Sharif and foreign relations chief Ibrahim Adow were staying for talks with
president Ali Abdalla Salah indicate that Mr. Salah contacted with Ethiopian
prime minister Males Zenawi, in an effort to create negotiations between
Islamists and the Ethiopian government.
Salah reportedly explained to premier Zenawi about Yemeni proposal in a bid to
avert an all out war that might flare between the Islamic Courts and the
Ethiopian troops in parts of Somalia to safeguard the two year-old fragile
government seated in the small town of Baidoa, southern Somalia.
United Notions reported last month that Ethiopian government has sent between
seven and eight thousand military troops to Somalia. Ethiopia denied the number
and stated it deployed several hundred military trainers and advisors in
Somalia to prop up the weak government led by President Abdullahi Yusuf.
Experts fear Somalia could become a proxy battleground for arch foes, Eritrea
and Ethiopia. The same UN report said Eritrea, which still has unsettled border
dispute with rival Ethiopia, provided Islamists with arms and troops. Eritrea
as well denied the report.
Somalia descended into tribal wars after warlords toppled former president Siad
Barre in 1991.
The Yemeni plan urges Ethiopia to endorse peace talks and Islamists not attack
any particular area in Somalia or the government based in Baidoa.
Only hours are left for the Islamic Courts to decide if they would attack
Ethiopian forces in the country. They gave the Ethiopian government seven days
to withdraw its military troops from Somalia or that they would face an all-out
war. The Ethiopian government in response said, "bring it on".
The chairperson of Islamic Courts, who is in Yemen for talks with Yemeni
president Ali Abdalla Salah over the revival of peace talks between the
transitional government and Islamists, said his Islamist movement does not
intend to launch attacks against Ethiopians in the country despite the
ultimatum.
President Ali Abdalla Salah has lately tried to soothe the tense situation in
Somalia after UN reportedly sent a letter to Salah to interfere Somalia's
beleaguered situation to prevent an all out war that would spread into the
region if it occurred.


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