From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Jul 15 2009 - 07:57:58 EDT
Islamist rebels holding French hostages
Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:25am GMT
* Government unit took men, handed them to Islamists
* Rebel groups argue over their fate
* Anger over French agents posing as journalists
(adds details)
By Abdi Guled
MOGADISHU, July 15 (Reuters) - One of Somalia's militant Islamist rebel
groups was holding two French security men on Wednesday after receiving them
from abductors linked to the government, police said.
Gunmen from an Islamist faction within President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's
security forces seized the two in a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday, then handed
them to Hizbul Islam insurgents, senior police officer Abdiqadir Odweyne
told Reuters.
Hizbul Islam was now arguing over the Frenchmen's fate with another militant
rebel group, al Shabaab, whom western security services view as al Qaeda's
proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state that has been mired in conflict
since 1991.
"Al Shabaab wants to take the Frenchmen from Hizbul Islam, they are on the
verge of fighting," said Odweyne.
"Al Shabaab wants to kill the Frenchmen and Hizbul Islam refuses. The
situation is not good."
With the rebels battling government troops on a daily basis, Mogadishu is
one of the most dangerous cities in the world and has a history of
kidnappings of foreigners, mainly aid-workers and journalists. Hostages are
normally released for ransom.
The Somali government said the two Frenchmen were posing as reporters while
working as security consultants to train presidential security guards.
Gunmen burst into a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday and went door-to-door until
they found them.
The police officer, Odweyne, said a government minister with close links to
the rebels was behind the abduction. City residents and a prominent NGO have
repeated that allegation.
ANGER AT JOURNALIST GUISE
The government has not responded specifically to that accusation, but vowed
to help ensure a quick release.
Somali Defence Minister Mohamed Abdi Gandi told Radio France Internationale
the motives for the abduction were financial.
"We don't know their names but we know their affiliation and their group,"
he said. "These are people who are armed and who carry out kidnappings to
demand ransoms, but these are not political kidnappings.
"There is some direct or indirect contact, we are going to try to use
several means," he said. The head of Paris-based Reporters without Borders,
Jean-Francois Julliard, said it would be scandalous if it is true the two
French agents had pretended to be journalists.
"If this is confirmed, it is shocking because these are official agents on a
mission for the French government who have used the title of journalist as a
cover," he told Reuters.
"There are foreign journalists abducted almost every month, there is no need
to add any more. Journalists are already in the line of fire in Somalia."
Foreign correspondents in the region were similarly outraged at the idea the
two Frenchmen would have posed as reporters. Only a very few correspondents
still travel to Somalia, employing dozens of security guards when they do.
A more than two-year insurgency has killed at least 18,000 civilians and
uprooted one million people in Somalia.
Captures of foreigners, however, generally garner world headlines in a way
the daily death toll seldom does.
- For facts on main players in Somalia, click [ID:nL0177640]
- For analysis on Islamist rebels, click [ID:nL7689968]
(Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu; Thierry Leveque and
Joseph Tandy in Paris; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Giles Elgood)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Main actors in Somalia's conflict
Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:41am GMT
July 15 (Reuters) - Two French security advisers kidnapped in Mogadishu are
being held by the militant Islamist insurgent movement Hizbul Islam, a
senior police officer said on Wednesday.
Here are the main actors in Somalia's war:
ISLAMIST GROUPS
* Hizbul Islam is an umbrella organisation of four opposition groups led by
hardline cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is an influential figure
among Islamists. The group is aligned and fights alongside Shabaab in a bid
to topple the Western-backed government.
* Al Shabaab is a hardline group fighting the government. It wants to drive
foreign forces out of Somalia and impose a strict form of Islamic law
throughout the country. It was created as the armed wing of the Islamic
Courts Union that controlled Mogadishu and much of the south in 2006. The
United States has placed Shabaab on its terrorism list. Analysts say the
group is the best-financed and militarily strongest of the insurgents. It
controls large parts of the capital and southern Somalia.
* Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca is a moderate Islamist group aligned with the
government. The group is led by Sufi clerics and has fought and successfully
beaten back Shabaab in parts of central Somalia. Stung by some Shabaab
practices including desecration of graves, it has vowed to oust the group
from other areas. It says the Somali war is sponsored by al Qaeda and other
forces, and has nothing to do with Islam.
GOVERNMENT:
* The government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed -- himself a moderate
Islamist and former rebel -- controls only a few districts in central
Somalia and some of the capital Mogadishu. It has been unable to defeat the
Islamist insurgents, but has had limited success in enticing some rebel
leaders away. The government suffers from internal divisions and the loyalty
of some of its security forces is also in question. It is endeavouring to
built a 20,000-strong force, but says it needs more money from international
donors to achieve that.
FOREIGN ACTORS:
* Ethiopia entered neighbouring Somalia in late 2006 to oust the Islamic
Courts Union from the capital, occupying much of the south until early this
year. Addis Ababa sees any groups who may stoke separatist tensions in its
southern, Somali-dominated Ogaden region as a threat to its national
security. In the mid-1990s, Ethiopia crushed the al-Itihaad al-Islaami group
led by Aweys and other figures in the current insurgency. It says it
reserves the right to intervene again if necessary. Residents, rebels and
aid workers say some Ethiopian troops crossed the border last week. Addis
denies this.
* Eritrea has battled arch-enemy Ethiopia since the 1960s with a brief
respite in the 1990s. The United Nations, Somali government and other groups
accuse Asmara of sending weapons and providing training for Somali
insurgents. Eritrea vehemently denies the accusations, saying that outside
influence is what is causing Somalia's problems.
* The African Union sent a force, now 4,300-strong, to Mogadishu in March
2007. The Ugandan and Burundi peacekeepers control little beyond the
airport, the port, the presidential palace and a road linking those three
places. Opposition groups say the AU presence is a sticking point to
entering into talks with the government. The peacekeepers have been unable
to stop the violence. The AU expects to boost troop levels to 6,000.
(Writing by Jack Kimball and Abdi Guled; Editing by Giles Elgood)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----