From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Mon Aug 01 2005 - 22:34:27 EDT
Ethiopia says strength of Somali Islamists is due to government failure
Tuesday 6 January 2009 03:30.
January 5, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) - Ethiopian foreign minister Seyoum Mesfin
has explained the recent success of the Somali Islamists by the failure
of Somali transitional government to establish its authority in the
country.
Mesfin minimized reports about Al-Sebab's strength saying that the
vacuum created by the lack of well established administration in the
country provided the Islamist fighters with the opportunity to control
easily different towns.
"So al-Shebab, even 10 armed people can create havoc throughout the
country because the government has not been able to extend its
infrastructure and administration in the rest of the country."
The minister encouraged the Somali government to swiftly elect a strong
leadership to lead the country during this critical stage of its
history. He stressed that the government had better organized and
stronger military, police and militia than the Islamist groups, adding
they only missed a united and strong headship.
The Ethiopian foreign minister who made his statement at the Addis Ababa
airport to bid farewell to the Somalia's acting President Sheikh Adan
Mohamed Madoobe and the Prime Minister Hassan Hussein Nur.
Despite the repeated calls for a swift election of a new president by
the international community and neighboring countries - Ethiopia and
Kenya, the Somali factions have already started a new power struggle for
the post of the president and the election could take more time.
Mesfin also blamed the international community for not supporting the
Somali transitional government or the peacekeeping mission in the
troubled country. He further said Somalia did not receive as much
attention as has been given to Darfur.
The head of the Ethiopian diplomacy repeated that Addis Ababa could not
bear indefinitely and without international support the responsibility
of the situation in Somalia.
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article29776
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