www.eastafricaforum.net http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f14285cc-6f85-11dd-986f-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1 Financial Times, UKEthiopian FM blasts Somalia’s leaders
Barney Jopson
August 21 2008
Ethiopia has blasted Somalia’s political leaders for getting bogged down in ”internal squabbles” while millions of Somalis live on the brink of a humanitarian disaster in a country that remains violent and ungoverned.
Thousands of Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia at the end of 2006 to reinstall an interim government headed by president Abdullahi Yusuf. But it has a tenuous grip on power and its time in office has been marked by growing insurgency, clan warfare, and the mass displacement of civilians.
Seyoum Mesfin, Ethiopia’s foreign minister, told the Financial Times that a rift between the president and prime minister Nur Hassan Hussein, appointed eight months ago after his predecessor fell out with Mr Yusuf, was the biggest obstacle to peace.
Ethiopia’s own security and credibility are at stake in Somalia, which it invaded to oust a coalition of Islamist groups that had taken control. As the interim government’s main international backer, it has closeted the president and prime minister in Addis Ababa for the past week as it seeks to bridge the divide between them.
In Mogadishu, the Somali capital, Ethiopian soldiers and troops from the transitional federal government remain the target of almost daily attacks by Islamist insurgents and clan gunmen opposed to Mr Yusuf’s regime.
“The main challenge now is not what they call the enemy. It’s an intra-government crisis that is preventing them from focusing on the tasks they need to get done,” said Mr Mesfin. “There has been a lack of vigour and, if I may say so, a lack of commitment.”
Since the beginning of last year more than 8,000 Somalis have been killed and 1m forced from their homes by fighting, which has centred on the capital Mogadishu. Humanitarian relief efforts have been undermined by the assassination of aid workers and the United Nations says that, due also to the additional impact of a drought, up to 3.5m Somalis – or nearly half the population – could need food aid later this year.
But Mr Seyoum gave a less bleak account of the security situation today than many independent observers, saying the country was experiencing less daily violence than Iraq and Afghanistan. To create a durable peace, he said the president and the prime minster needed to implement plans to create regional administrations that would give people a greater stake in government and, potentially, help to reconcile Somalia’s warring clans and sub-clans.
The rift between the leaders overshadowed the signing of a peace agreement in Djibouti on Monday between the interim government and one of two factions of the Somali political opposition. The agreement was welcomed on Thursday by the African Union, but it did little to lighten a mood of gloom among western diplomats who follow Somalia, because it had already been rejected by the other faction as well as by the al-Shabaab Islamist extremists leading the insurgency.
Mr Seyoum said that al-Shabaab, which the US says is linked to al-Qaeda, had been critically weakened: “They cannot sustain their own activities, let alone disband the government.” But other analysts say their strength and boldness appears to be increasing.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aSA8eJ8UcQmQ&refer=africa Bloomberg, US Somalia's Opposition Vows to Unite, Fight Ethiopians
Hamsa Omar
Aug. 19, 2008
Somali Islamic insurgents fighting a United Nations-backed transitional government have pledged to unite rival factions to drive Ethiopian troops from the east African nation, a spokesman for the rebel group said.
The Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia split in June when a moderate faction led by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed signed a deal with the interim government in Djibouti, agreeing that attacks would stop in 30 days and UN peacekeepers would replace Ethiopian troops within four months. The accord was rejected by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an Islamist leader regarded by the U.S. as a terrorist linked to al-Qaeda.
Differences between the leaders of the Islamic Courts Union ``will end soon,'' Abdilkadir Ali Omar, the deputy chairman of the group, said yesterday in a teleconference with journalists in the capital, Mogadishu. ``We will continue fighting against the Ethiopian forces who invaded our homeland aggressively until they withdraw from our country.''
Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 to help the transitional government oust Islamic militias from southern and central parts of the country. Violence between rebels and government troops has intensified since then.
Somalia hasn't had a functioning central administration since the 1991 removal of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.
The transitional government and ARS representatives agreed at a meeting yesterday in neighboring Djibouti to halt all fighting and pledged to implement the June peace agreement, the government said in a communiqué.
`Inflammatory Statements'
``The parties agreed to continue the political dialogue between themselves and refrain from making inflammatory statements,'' it said. ``They reaffirmed their commitment to cease all armed confrontation and to establish sub committees to implement the arrangements to that end.''
Meanwhile, Ethiopia denied its soldiers were responsible for attacks on minibuses last week that killed at least 40 civilians. The authorities in Addis Ababa blamed the Islamic al- Shabaab militia for planting a remote-controlled bomb under one of the vehicles, killing 11 passengers.
A local doctor and eyewitnesses said on Aug. 16 the minibus passengers died after Ethiopian soldiers opened fire on the vehicles. The attack occurred in Arbiska, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the capital, Mogadishu.
``It was the Al-Shabaab bombing of the bus that caused the deaths of passengers, not fire from Ethiopian soldiers,'' the government said in a statement posted on its Web site today.
Five civilians died in a shootout between the Islamic militants and Ethiopian and Somali government soldiers, it said.
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http://in.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idINLD39903620080822 Travel Postcard: 48 hours in Asmara
Fri Aug 22, 2008
ASMARA (Reuters) - Not many travelers end up in Asmara, one of Africa's least-known and most beautiful cities. But if you ever have 48 hours to spend in the Eritrean capital, here are some tips on how to make the best of a short stay.
Given Eritrea's turbulent history, including a 30-year independence war until 1991 followed by a 1998-2000 border conflict with Ethiopia, tourism remains underdeveloped.
Those who make it -- among them, plenty of Italians exploring their former African colony -- are stunned by Asmara, especially its architecture.
FRIDAY
6 p.m. Join the locals in a "passeggiata", or stroll, down Harnet (Liberation) Avenue, the wide main street where residents gather in the early evening to meet and greet. With its pavement cafes and extraordinary buildings from the Italian colonial era -- art deco to neo-classical -- you feel you are in the Mediterranean, rather than Africa.
Older Eritreans will greet you in Italian, the young in English. You can have no fear of being robbed.
8 p.m. Choose from an array of restaurants round the small city to enjoy a traditional meal of "injera", a spongy pancake served on a tray with stew on top. If you are less adventurous, the menu will have plenty of pasta dishes, too. As you go home, observe soldiers on street corners checking the papers of the residents in a sign of Asmara's stricter undertones.
12 p.m. Before you go to sleep, listen to the midnight church bells in the distance, breaking the silence in this tranquil city of half a million people on a plateau 2,500 feet
up from the Red Sea coast. Remember half of the Eritrean population is Muslim, so get ready to be awakened by the call to prayer!
SATURDAY
6 a.m. Feeling energetic? Before the heat comes, take a jog or a walk up one of the hills around Asmara. The views of the city are stunning -- only a couple of post-independence high-rises spoil an otherwise early 20th-century panorama, dotted with mosques and a couple of cathedrals. Looking the other way across the countryside, women in white shrouds begin daily chores while boys with sticks take sheep and goats out in almost biblical landscapes. Mountains disappear into a misty distance. Wave at the soldiers on guard on the hilltops in case they think you're up to no good.
10 a.m. If invited by local hosts, join them in a coffee ceremony. The bean was discovered centuries ago by a monk not far away in north Ethiopia, and it is in this part of the world that they really know how to enjoy coffee. Watch the beans being washed and roasted as incense is burned before boiling. It might take an hour and the coffee will be strong.
1 p.m. Take some time at lunch to talk to Eritreans about their history. The oldest will remember the Italian occupation, the British defeat of Benito Mussolini's troops in 1941, then the ever-controversial federation with Ethiopia.
All Eritreans will talk about the 30-year "struggle" for independence that ended in 1991 -- some still carry the physical scars: a missing limb, a bullet lodged in the ribs -- and has defined their modern history. Present-day politics are a sensitive subject -- President Isaias Afwerki was a successful guerrilla leader and initially praised by the West. He is now heavily criticised by human rights groups.
3 p.m. Spend a couple of hours walking around the city to enjoy its Italian-era architecture. Don't miss the plane-shaped futurist "Fiat Tagliero" service station on the roundabout of Sematat Avenue. Its concrete wings are so long nobody believed they would stay up when wooden struts were pulled away at its inauguration in 1938, but it's still standing. At the Education Ministry on Harnet Avenue, which used to be the Fascist Party headquarters, turn your head to the left and see how the building's jagged roof spells an "F".
5 p.m. English Premier League football is an obsession throughout Africa. Head to the Mocambo bar to join several hundred young Eritreans whistling and shouting as they watch their favorite teams live -- different matches on different screens.
8 p.m. Go for pre-dinner drinks to the trendy Zara bar, full of young Eritreans. It's next to Sandal Square, so-called because of a monument to the independence war shaped like the fighters' simple footwear. The sandal structure has gone for repair at the moment -- as has beer, because of a shortage of ingredients.
SUNDAY
8 a.m. Have breakfast on the courtyard terrace of the elegant Albergo Italia, Asmara's first hotel, built in 1899.
9 a.m. Take the two-hour drive down the mountains to Massawa port on the Red Sea. Don't forget to get a travel permit first from the tourist office. The hairpin bends afford dramatic views -- and churn the stomach.
1 p.m. Enjoy freshly caught fish in the rundown but atmospheric old town of Massawa, whose crumbling architecture reflects more of an Arab influence.
2 p.m. Take a boat to nearby Green Island for snorkeling.
7 p.m. Back safely in Asmara, freshen up at Asmara Sweet cafe with a juice or tea. Given that the city has become a refuge for exiled rebels from the region -- notably Darfur guerrillas and Somali Islamists -- you may find the men on the next table are interesting to chat to.
(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne and Jack Kimball, editing by Paul Casciato
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