NAIROBI (Reuters) – A senior Somali Islamist leader said on Tuesday the Islamic Courts movement ousted from Mogadishu in a brief war at the end of 2006 remained unbroken and better-supported than before among the population.
“The movement is intact. The leadership is still there. Many of them are inside the country, in Mogadishu and elsewhere, in hiding. Others are abroad,” said Ibrahim Hussein Adow, foreign affairs pointman for the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC).
Adow, who has made Yemen his home in exile, said Somalis had seen the contrast between violence by the Ethiopian military backing Somalia’s interim government, and the stability the Courts brought during their six-month rule of the south in 2006.
“When the Islamic Courts came in, things changed. Tribes were united, the port and airport opened, weapons were collected, we even stopped piracy,” he said by telephone during a trip to Doha.
“The movement changed people’s lives for the better…The Ethiopians Woyannes and Transitional Federal Government have created violence and genocide…So the support for the (Islamic Courts) movement is more than before.” Many in Mogadishu and elsewhere in south Somalia credited the Islamists last year for bringing peace to areas knowing little but warlord rule and anarchy since 1991, when the Horn of Africa nation descended into chaos with the fall of a dictator.
But Somalis, who are generally moderate Muslims, also complained of hardline practices by the SICC such as enforcing dress codes and banning public viewing of films.
Addis Ababa Woyanne sent thousands of troops into Somalia to help the interim government of President Abdullahi Yusuf drive the Islamists out of power at the New Year, scattering their fighters around the south and sending leaders into hiding.
But some Islamist fighters regrouped to spearhead an insurgency against the Ethiopian Woyanne troops and government.
“It is not the Islamic Courts organising this, but the population organising itself,” Adow said of the daily attacks.
“Ethiopians Woyannes killed so many people with their indiscriminate bombing and their tanks. Their violence is behind the problem, they have alienated the population.”
Adow said the recent National Reconciliation Conference in Mogadishu was a failure as it was run by the Ethiopians Woyanne and government, and never intended to bring opponents on board.
A U.S.-educated lecturer in education and international affairs, Adow, in his mid-fifties, said he advocated peaceful engagement of all the Somali factions at a neutral venue.
“We will go anywhere, provided talks are inclusive, there is an independent body present, and the place is safe,” he said.
Ethiopian Review now can be read in 11 languages — French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Russian and English.
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We are also collaborating with a group of Ethiopian web developers to create a free blog service. The service is now online at www.zikkir.com. Check it out. Sign up and create your own online journal for free. The advantage of using zikkir.com is that it is Amharic language enabled.
Nairobi, September 4, 2007 – Violence and displacement are threatening the lives of the civilian population in Ethiopia’s conflict-affected Somali region, the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today. Despite urgent humanitarian needs, however, two MSF sections have been denied access to the region. MSF is calling on the Ethiopian authorities Woyanne to immediately allow its teams to provide assistance to people in the region who are facing an increasingly desperate situation.
MSF has a signed agreement with the Government of Ethiopia to work in the Somali region — often referred to as the “Ogaden region” — and had conducted several assessments of the humanitarian needs in the area when it was forced to evacuate its teams for security reasons in late July. Despite repeated appeals over the past weeks to gain permission to return, the Government of Ethiopia Woyanne has denied both MSF Belgium and MSF Holland access.
“There is a humanitarian crisis in the Somali-region of Ethiopia,” said William Robertson, head of mission for the Dutch section of MSF in Ethiopia. “Our teams have treated people who have been forced to flee their homes and are now struggling to survive with little or no assistance. People are living in fear because they find themselves targeted by and caught between armed groups. We are urgently calling for immediate access to the region in order to help civilians in need.”
While conducting mobile health clinics and measles vaccination campaigns in the Wardher area of the region until fighting forced the MSF team to leave on July 24, MSF international staff saw emptied and burned villages, and assisted numerous people who reported being forcibly displaced from their homes. Despite limited operations, MSF treated several victims of beatings and gunshot wounds, underlining the need for urgent medical care in the area.
In July, MSF also conducted assessments of the humanitarian needs in the region in the areas of Denan, Garbo, Degahmadow, Sagag, and Fiq. During these assessments, the MSF team saw a number of villages wholly or partially abandoned and were told of food shortages by villagers and displaced people.
“Last week, we asked the authorities to grant us access at least for 24 to 48 hours so we could provide medications and material to Fiq health centre. We know that the health centre and the wider district are suffering from a serious shortage of drugs as the last supplies arrived six months ago”, said Loris De Filippi, operational coordinator for MSF Belgium in Ethiopia. “But once again, the authorities refused to let our team move from the capital city Jijiga to Fiq by road or even by plane”.
As insecurity has left health structures empty of staff and medicines, there is a risk that the health situation will deteriorate further. In the month since MSF carried out its assessments, no independent humanitarian non-governmental organizations have been able to provide assistance to these areas. The region is known to be extremely precarious and subject to nutritional emergencies and famines causing extremely high mortality, as witnessed by MSF in the years 1992 and 2000. Humanitarian organizations must be allowed immediate access to the region, otherwise the medical and nutritional consequences risk becoming catastrophic.
MSF has worked in Ethiopia continually since 1984, carrying out a variety of medical and nutritional interventions throughout the country, including in the Somali region.
Nashville, Tennessee, the City of Country Music, has issued a proclamation declaring September 12 Ethiopian Millennium Day.
Nashville is a beautiful city where over three thousand Ethiopians reside.
The Mayor of Nashville, Mr. Bill Purcell, stated that “The city of Nashville and the nation join in celebrating the rich culture and tradition of Ethiopia…”
Nashville, Tennessee, the City of Country Music, has issued a proclamation declaring September 12 Ethiopian Millennium Day.
Nashville is a beautiful city where over three thousand Ethiopians reside.
The Mayor of Nashville, Mr. Bill Purcell, stated that “The city of Nashville and the nation join in celebrating the rich culture and tradition of Ethiopia…”
A high-level delegation of the Coalition for Unity & Democracy Party (Kinijit) will depart Addis Ababa for Washington DC on Saturday, Sept. 8, according to Ethiopian Review’s reporter in Addis Ababa.
It has now been confirmed that members of the delegation, Wzt. Bertukan Mideksa, Dr Hailu Araya, Ato Gizachew Shiferraw, and Ato Brook Kebede, have obtained their U.S. visas on Saturday. Ato Hailu Shawel is expected to get his visa today. But at a Kinijit executive committee meeting that was held yesterday, he proposed that the delegation’s travel to the U.S. be postponed. He explained that all political prisoners must be released before embarking on a foreign trip. After discussing the proposal, the executive committee decided to go ahead with the original plan, saying that the delegation’s USA tour will help provide an opportunity for drawing worldwide attention to the political repression in Ethiopia.
Some sources close to the Kinijit leadership say that there is a strong possibility Ato Hailu may decide not to join the delegation when it departs on Saturday. If that is the case, the delegation will be headed by Vice President of Kinijit, Wzt. Bertukan Mideksa.
According to Kinijit’s head of finance, Dr Befekadu Degife, the party is in dire shortage of money, so far as not being able to provide support to many of its recently released activists who have lost their jobs and have no means of supporting themselves and their families. Currently, Kinijit does not even have enough money to run its offices. It is believed that the delegations’ USA tour will help alleviate the party’s financial constraints.
The Kinijit delegation’s arrival is eagerly awaited by Ethiopians in the Washington DC area and through out the U.S. The Kinijit DC metro chapter is preparing for the largest Ethiopian political gathering ever in the Washington DC area when the party’s leaders arrive.
