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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Jul 26 2010 - 15:06:01 EDT
Guards for Somali Leader Join Islamists
By
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/jeffrey_gettle
man/index.html?inline=nyt-per> JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and MOHAMED IBRAHIM
July 26, 2010
NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali officials acknowledged on Thursday that members of
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/so
malia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> Somalia's presidential guard had defected
to the
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/al-shab
ab/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Shabab, the radical Islamist insurgent group
that <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/world/africa/13uganda.html> claimed
responsibility for
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/world/africa/12uganda.html> the recent
bombings in Uganda that killed more than 70 people watching the final game
of the World Cup.
The defection of some of the president's best-trained men is the latest
setback for Somalia's beleaguered transitional government, which has lost
important pieces of territory in the past few days. Insurgents are now 300
yards - a rifle shot away - from the presidential palace.
The Shabab gleefully introduced three former members of the presidential
guard at a news conference in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Wednesday.
The soldiers said they quit working for the government because it was being
protected by
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/african
_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org> African Union peacekeepers, who they said
were killing Somali civilians with indiscriminate shelling.
More than 6,000 African Union peacekeepers are in Mogadishu to help protect
the government and stabilize Somalia, but they are coming under intensifying
criticism for firing mortars and heavy guns into crowded neighborhoods.
African Union officials have said that they are responding to enemy fire and
that they try to avoid civilian casualties.
But the Shabab are exploiting the issue of heavy shelling in an attempt to
turn the Somali public against the peacekeepers, who are from Uganda and
Burundi (two mainly Christian countries, in contrast to Somalia, which is
nearly all Muslim).
Shabab officials have also used the shelling as a rationale for bombing a
nightclub and an outdoor gathering of fans in Uganda during the final game
of the World Cup this month, in a
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/world/africa/13policy.html> synchronized
attack that has put the entire
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/world/africa/14uganda.html> region on
high alert.
Somali government officials had initially denied that any of the
presidential guard had defected. But on Thursday, Abdullahi Ali Anod, head
of the presidential guard, told Somali radio stations: "The soldiers who
joined the Shabab asked us permission to leave and visit their families,
which they had not visited for so long, but later we were informed they
defected."
The United States has helped arm the Somali government forces and pay their
salaries. But that has not stopped
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/world/africa/17somalia.html> a stream of
defectors - and American-bought weapons - from flowing to the Shabab, who
have grown increasingly close to
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/al_qaed
a/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Al Qaeda.
The Shabab and their allies rule much of Somalia, with the transitional
government controlling a small slice of Mogadishu. Government officials
concede that if it were not for the African Union peacekeepers, the
government would quickly collapse.
In Uganda on Thursday, police officials said 20 suspects who had been
arrested in connection with the bombings had been released. Judith
Nabakooba, a police spokeswoman, said that several suspects remained in
custody and that Shabab and Qaeda "links are there, but we cannot confirm
it." She also said a Ugandan rebel group based in eastern Congo might have
been involved.
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