Vol. 71/No. 20      May 21, 2007

Ali Mohammed Gedi, prime minister of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG), claimed the forces of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) have been defeated. The SICC was ousted from power in December following a military invasion led by Ethiopian troops along with U.S. Special Forces.

But SICC leaders issued a statement from Eritrea April 30 calling for continued resistance to the TFG and all foreign troops. Washington has accused the SICC of ties to al-Qaeda.

Britain’s UN ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who is the UN Security Council president, attempted to put a democratic face on the UN intervention, saying no UN forces would go to Somalia unless there was a “sufficient peace to keep,” according to Reuters.

But Ban suggested the opposite view in a recent report, saying if the situation did not improve a “coalition of the willing”—a term the U.S. government coined around the 2003 invasion of Iraq—with a strong military capability should be considered.

So far only the government of Uganda has provided 1,500 troops for the projected 8,000-strong African Union force. Its troops met stiff resistance upon arrival in Mogadishu in March and had until recently remained stationed near the airport.

The government of Mozambique announced May 2 that it would not send troops to Somalia. Teofilo João, a top official of the country’s defense ministry, said his government had not been adequately briefed about the situation. “Is it a peace keeping mission or a peace imposition mission?” he asked.

The U.S- and Ethiopia-backed TFG is trying to cobble together a stable regime by appointing clan leaders to the government. President Abdulahhi Yusuf named Mohamed Dheere, a leader of the Hawiye clan, as mayor of Mogadishu, the Associated Press reported May 2. Dheere has cooperated with the CIA in capturing al-Qaeda operatives in the capital, AP said. Prior to Dheere’s appointment, Hawiye elders had said that, while they did not necessarily support the SICC, they had no reason to aid the current regime as long as it did not share power.

Dheere and other clan leaders now being appointed to government positions were dubbed "warlords" by Washington leading up to the 1993-94 U.S. military intervention in Somalia by the Clinton administration. Washington failed to establish a stable regime then and withdrew its troops.

A 2004 agreement among clan leaders to form a new interim government, backed by Washington and other imperialist powers, fell apart two years later after a CIA covert operation to arm leaders of various clans against “Islamist” forces was exposed.  
 
 
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