Talks to salvage Somalia peace deal begin
The Associated Press
Saturday, August 16, 2008
MOGADISHU, Somalia: U.N.-brokered talks to salvage a peace deal threatened by a split within Somalia's government began Saturday amid a wave of violence that has killed dozens over two days, officials said.
Somalia's government struck the deal in June with a relatively moderate faction of the country's Islamic insurgency. But Somalia's more hard-line opposition leaders never took part in the agreement, which has had little effect on the ground.
Ethiopian troops supporting the shaky U.N.-backed government drove the Islamists from power in December 2006, sparking the Iraq-style insurgency.
The talks in neighboring Djibouti aim to renew the deal. Mediators also hope the talks will reconcile Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf and his estranged Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein so the peace agreement doesn't fall apart altogether.
Both men have clashed since Hussein's attempts to fire a powerful presidential ally earlier this month.
A spokesman for the faction of the insurgency that signed the deal in June, Suleyman Olad Roble, said both sides have drawn up a list of 32 people to implement it during Saturday's talks.
The peace talks, however, have failed to prevent around 70 deaths in the last two days, according to officials and residents, who both have given conflicting numbers.
The Islamists have launched dozens of hit and run attacks on towns this year, taking control of territory for a few hours while they free prisoners and steal weapons before withdrawing.
In the latest violence Saturday, insurgents attacked the town of Belet Weyne, about 335 kilometers (210 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu.
Ali Mohamud, a resident of the town, said he saw 13 bodies after the attack, including four Ethiopian soldiers allied to the government and three insurgents.
The town's mayor, Aden Abdi Isse, confirmed the attack and said nine insurgents were killed. He did not say how many government soldiers were killed, but said a number were wounded. Somali officials do not comment on civilian deaths, and Ethiopian officials refuse to speak to the media.
The Ethiopians "attacked us and we forced them to flee ... They do not have the power to defeat us," the mayor told The Associated Press by telephone.
Another resident, Shakir Idow, said hundreds of heavily armed insurgents launched an attack on Ethiopian troops based in the town at dawn. He said the Ethiopians were forced to retreat from a strategic bridge, but they later shelled the area with heavy artillery.
The Islamists' military spokesman, Abdirahin Issa Adow, said two of his men were killed.
The death toll from Friday's violence, meanwhile, rose to at least 60 with the discovery of 16 new bodies Saturday morning, local elder Mo'alim Husein Abdi said. Salah Sheikh, a town resident, said two more bodies were discovered in a different area.
Residents said most of the dead were killed when Ethiopian troops sprayed civilians with gunfire after an explosion near a military convoy. But it was not possible to verify their accounts.
The Islamists had controlled Mogadishu and much of the south for the previous six months. They were popular for dismantling militia roadblocks and disarming gunmen, but many Somalis also objected to their introduction of rigid Sharia law.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when rival warlords overthrew a socialist dictator and then turned on each other.
