ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia to pull troops out of Somalia within weeks, Uganda ready to send peacekeeping troops in

Ethiopia will move out of Somalia as soon as the military operation is complete and peace prevails, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Thursday (January 04) after hosting Uganda President Yoweri Museveni in Addis Ababa. "In particular the development in Somalia, the two of us agreed that the Somali people should be supported in their hour of need and the international community should provide adequate humanitarian assistance, and assistance to rebuild Somalia. Both of us agreed that the African Union should deploy peace keeping troops at the earliest possible moment, and we all agreed that the transitional government of Somalia should engage in dialogue with Somali societies to try and bolster and broaden the transitional government and establish peace. But that it should be an internal Somali process. As I'm sure many of you have heard that Uganda has always been eager to support the Somali people to establish peace, including by sending peace keeping troops. That has been the position of Uganda for over a year now, and I believe that it continues to be the position of Uganda. Ethiopia, naturally, welcomes the offer by Uganda to help the Somalis including by sending peace keeping troops as soon as possible," said Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The Somali interim government wants a foreign peacekeeping force, approved by the United Nations, to be deployed as soon as possible. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he was ready to send peacekeepers to Somalia as soon as parliament approves the plan. "The question really has been raised for a long time. The only thing we need is a parliamentary resolution. That's all. Given the constitution, our constitution says that for the troops to go out, we need a parliamentary resolution. Parliament is now in recess, but we shall discus with the speaker to see whether we can call them, and they will give us the authority and we are going to be there for two years. So it will not take long," Museveni said at a joint news conference. He gave no date for the parliamentary session that would discuss the plan. Ugandan government officials have repeatedly expressed concerns about sending soldiers to Somalia, saying the force needed a clear mission and exit strategy. After routing rival Islamist leaders from their Mogadishu stronghold with military backing from Ethiopia, Somalia's interim government now faces the huge task of trying to secure the gun-infested capital. Uganda had been the first to offer peacekeepers -- a battalion of 700-800 troops -- to bolster the government under a plan by regional body IGAD, endorsed last month by the African Union and U.N. Security Council. As the two heads of States were meeting, Somali gunmen attacked an oil tanker truck near Mogadishu, wounding three people and raising fears of a return to the clan violence that had largely stopped during six months of Islamist rule. The 15-nation UN Security Council last month endorsed the deployment of an African peacekeeping force. But before the force could be assembled, Ethiopia sent its own troops into Somalia and, alongside government soldiers, promptly drove out rival Islamist forces. But on Thursday Zenawi said Ethiopia planned to withdraw its troops and welcomed the deployment of African peacekeepers. "Well obviously, the transitional government is our partner, and we will have to discuss our withdrawal with them. But as I have made it very clear in parliament, we are not going to be there indefinitely. The transitional government may want us to be there for a longer period than we would like to, but we have already made some concessions in that regards. You might remember that when we went in, I have made it very clear we will move out as soon as we have completed the military operations," Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said. The Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC), which had imposed sharia law across much of the south, abandoned the capital last week to government troops backed by Ethiopian forces. Within hours of the Islamists' departure, militiamen loyal to warlords ousted in June reappeared at checkpoints in the city where they used to rob, rape and murder civilians. Ethiopian armour and aircraft are helping Somali government troops hunt Islamist fighters who fled their last stronghold in the southern port of Kismayu.

ITN Source | January 5, 2007

Tags:. .promptly. .constitution. .assembled. .imposed. .deployed