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Somali protesters chant
anti-Ethiopia slogans during a rally inside Mogadishu Stadium.
(Reuters)
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MOGADISHU — A cohort of Somalia lawmakers on
Monday, July 24, pressed for the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from
their Horn of African country as thousands of Somalis protested
military intervention by their powerful arch-foe neighbor.
"Ethiopian troops should get out of Somalia as
soon as possible and should cease from the constant aggression against
Somalia," sixteen legislators said in a statement cited by
Reuters.
"This move is a clear interference against the
freedom and sovereignty of Somalia," they insisted.
More than 100 Ethiopian military trucks carrying
troops and supplies were reported by residents in Baidoa, about 250
kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Mogadishu.
Addis Ababa dismissed the claims as propaganda, but
said it would crush the Islamic Courts should they attempt to attack
the largely powerless government of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
Nominally Christian-led Ethiopia, which backs
Yusuf's secular-based government, has invaded neighboring Somalia in
the past.
Home to about 10 million largely impoverished
people, Somalia has lacked almost all the trappings of a functional
state, such as national systems of education, healthcare and justice,
for the past 15 years.
Illegal
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"We are talking to the
international community to avoid serious bloodshed and we are
urging the Ethiopians to withdraw from Somalia," Sharif said.
(Reuters)
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The Somali MPs stressed that the intervention of
Ethiopian troops runs in the face of the national security plan laid
down by the parliament," the Somali MPs said.
"Therefore the Ethiopian troops have to be
withdrawn from Somalia immediately and stop the violation against the
territory of Somalia.
"They are in our territory illegally and this
is undermining our efforts to bring the people of Somalia together
under a national federal government," they averred.
The interim government and the Islamic Courts have
agreed to recognize each other under a deal brokered by the Arab
League.
But the Courts withdrew Saturday, July 22, from
talks with the interim government in protest at Ethiopian
intervention.
Tensions have risen between the two sides since the
Islamic Courts defeated the US-led warlord Alliance for the
Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) and seized full
control of the capital Mogadishu on June.
Warlords had controlled the capital since the 1991
overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre.
Protests
At least 3,000 Somalis also gathered in northern
Mogadishu's stadium Monday to protest Ethiopia's military
intervention, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Burning the Ethiopian flag, the angry protestors
vowed to fight the invading troops to the last man to defend their
homeland.
"Down with the Addis Ababa regime",
"Somalis have to prepare themselves for the occupation of
Somalia", "We are ready for jihad against Ethiopia",
read some of placards carried by the protestors.
Islamic Courts leaders said they were keen to avoid
bloodshed, warning that they would have to fight if the international
community failed to force an Ethiopian pullout.
"The former armed forces of Somalia, Islamic
volunteers and Islamic courts troops are ready to engage face to face
with Ethiopian troops, but they are waiting for our
instructions," Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the head of the
executive committee of the Islamic Courts, told the rally.
"We are talking to the international community
to avoid serious bloodshed and we are urging the Ethiopians to
withdraw from Somalia. Patience has its own limitations."
