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Ethiopian Troops Cast Shadow on
Djibouti Talks, But Who Could or Would Replace Them?
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press in Africa: News Analysis
DJIBOUTI,
June 2 -- The Alliance
for the Re-Liberation of Somalia delegation meeting the UN Security
Council
laid down a condition for moving forward: there must be a timeline for
Ethiopian troops to leave Somalia. Some saw this as a softening of the
A.R.S.
position, in which actual departure was the threshold for discussion.
But who
would replace the Ethiopians?
When A.R.S. vice-chairman Abdulrahman Abdishakur
Warsame emerged from
meeting with the Council to take questions, Inner City Press asked if
the
Alliance would support a UN Peacekeeping force in Somalia. Yes, he
said, we
would support that. But earlier in the day, the Council was told that
there are
no countries waiting to send troops. So what if the Ethiopians were
"re-hatted" as UN Peacekeepers?
Inner City Press asked Abdulrahman Abdishakur
Warsame about reports that
the town of Baidoa, defended until now by Ethiopian troop and those of
the
Transitional Federal Government, is surrounded and about to fall. I am
not in
Baidoa, he answered. "You should ask the TFG." Inner City Press did
ask, the TFG's minister of information. He did not deny the town might
change
hands. Instead he said that the TFG has taken the decision to "stop all
operations," including apparently operations to defend Baidoa, and
Jowar
before it. What these talks can or do have to do with events on the
ground in
Somalia is not clear.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles - his flower puts
down roots, in Somalia
UK Ambassador John Sawers afterwards told the press
that perhaps the
A.R.S. representatives here in Djibouti are having to take into account
the
less flexible views of their compatriots still in Eritrea. Inner City
Press'
sources say that "the A.R.S. members in Eritrea are demanding
that
the breakaway group that is now in Djibouti return to Asmara for
consultation.
The ARS members in Eritrea are actually accusing the SRSG and these 'UN
mediated
talks' as a U.S. inspired program to divide the resistance."
Al-Shabaab's
representative was even more focused on Monday, saying that the UN is the U.S.. Djibouti is crawling with
U.S. military presence; there's talk of beer in the Sheraton Hotel and
even a
red light district.
Footnote: U.S.
Ambassador Wolff,
meanwhile, took a surprisingly (but perhaps understandably) low profile
in
Monday's talks in Djibouti. France took an even lower-key approach:
their
Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert is skipping Djibouti and will fly
directly to
Sudan. Now the Council delegation will be heading straight to Juba on
Tuesday,
then to Khartoum, where the chief of staff of UNAMI, a UK citizen, has
just
been expelled, according to a UN spokesman. Never a dull moment...
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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