SOMALIA/ ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia says its troops will stay another few weeks in Somalia but ousted Islamists vow to return

Kismayu residents celebrate return to Somalia's government control. Ethiopian PM says Ethiopian troops will stay more time in Somalia to help government in fight to oust Islamists. Somalia PM says foreign pro-Islamist fighters captured during fighting; Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf arrives in Kenya. Ethiopia said on Tuesday (January 2) its troops will stay for another few weeks in Somalia to help the government pacify the Horn of Africa nation, but the Islamists they ousted in a brief war vowed to "rise from the ashes". The Islamists, who fled their last stronghold on Monday (January 1) after a two-week conflict, said they refused a government offer to surrender and reports of a deadly ambush against Ethiopian forces showed the fighting may be far from over. Ethiopian planes, tanks and troops helped the Somali government drive the Islamists from Mogadishu last week, after breaking free from its provincial outpost Baidoa to end six months of Islamist rule across much of southern Somalia. Thousands of residents of the southern Somali port town of Kismayu turned out into the streets on Tuesday to cheer the government's recapture of their town. The residents, who a day earlier had cheered the Ethiopian backed government troops as they entered the city in armed convoys, said they were happy that the government was back in control. In Kismayu, the Islamists last stand, officials called on locals to surrender military equipment left behind by the fleeing Islamists. Somalia's defence minister, Colonel Abdikadir Adan Shire, also known as Barre Hiraale said, "All military equipment, trucks, arms and ammunition left behind by those defeated must be surrendered within two days, if we get you, you will be the same as those defeated and we will assume you are supporting them and we will take military action against you." In Addis Ababa, a triumphant Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi -- who lauded his troops for turning the war against the Islamists -- said his forces would only stay "for a few weeks" while the government pacifies the chaotic nation. "It is up to the international community to deploy a peacekeeping force in Somalia without delay to avoid a vacuum and the resurgence of extremists and terrorists," Meles said. In Mogadishu -- where the interim government set up gun collection points at the start of a drive to disarm one of the world's most dangerous cities -- Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said Ethiopian troops may in fact stay for months. The Somali government has called for an African peacekeeping mission -- endorsed by the United Nations before the war -- to be deployed as soon as possible. Uganda has provisionally offered a battalion but said on Tuesday it was unwilling to deploy unless its mission and exit strategy were clearly defined. Nigeria may also help. Gedi said Eritrean, Ethiopian rebels and Arab fighters had been taken prisoner during the clashes. "Some of those who were defeated are still hiding on the border between Kenya and Somalia, but as you heard we captured some of them - foreigners, and we are still chasing others." The government has offered an amnesty to Somali fighters -- some of whom it says have been in touch -- but insists captured foreigners will face the courts. It has told Mogadishu residents to hand over their weapons by Thursday or be forcibly disarmed. Gedi, who added that Somalia had re-opened its airspace, said many had flocked to collection points, but at one seen by Reuters, not a single gun had been handed in. Traders said gun prices had gone up and some were still buying weapons. Analysts say the Islamists, joined by some foreign fighters, may launch an Iraqi-style insurgency against a government they see as propped up by a hated and Christian-led power. Tightening the net, neighbouring Kenya said it had closed its long and porous northeastern border and hosted Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf for talks. Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki appealed to the parties to "embrace dialogue".

ITN Source | January 3, 2007

Tags:. .dialogue. .reopened. .flocked. .surrendered. .fled