Sahal Abdulle
Monday, April 02, 2007
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MOGADISHU, April 2 (Reuters) - Mogadishu residents buried their dead and ventured onto streets for the first time in five days on Monday during a lull in battles pitting Ethiopian and Somali troops against Islamist insurgents and clan militia.
But even as elders from the dominant Hawiye clan insisted a truce was in place, hundreds of Ethiopian reinforcements drove into Mogadishu from other parts of Somalia, witnesses said.
One landmine exploded in south Mogadishu as a government convoy passed and there was sporadic gunfire. But the coastal capital was generally quieter after four days of ferocious fighting that residents say have killed several hundred people.
The United Nations said 47,000 Somalis have fled Mogadishu in the last 10 days, making a total of 96,000 since February.
"Last night was the first night I have slept since the war started," said a clan militia fighter. "People see this as a chance to collect their belongings and get out."
International reaction to the flare-up in Somalia has been muted, with little from Western capitals beyond vague calls for reconciliation and condemnation of shelling of civilian areas.
The International Contact Group on Somalia, which includes the United States, European and African nations, was due to meet in Cairo on Tuesday. But analysts said foreign nations were increasingly at a loss how to handle Somalia.
"They've supported African peacekeepers, but that's made no difference. If anything, it's inflamed the situation by giving the Islamists a sitting duck target," said one diplomat.
"Now they're pinning their hope on a reconciliation meeting that looks doomed before it's started," he added of a planned April 16 meeting of elders, politicians and former warlords.
ROADSIDE GRAVES
With dozens of rotting bodies still in the streets, it was impossible to calculate an exact death toll from what the Red Cross called Mogadishu's worst fighting in more than 15 years.
Somali reporters have seen scores of dead, Ethiopia says it has killed 200 insurgents, and residents say they believe several hundred people -- mainly civilians -- have died.
As Somalis stepped out to check damage, find food, and look for friends or family, some began burying corpses virtually where they found them. "They are digging shallow graves by the road," local reporter Mohamed Noor Sharifka said.
In one area that had been an Islamist stronghold, Ethiopian troops occupied the Al Hayat hospital since Sunday, residents said. Medical staff and patients quickly got out, but two employees were still being held there on Monday, they said.
A small African Union (AU) peacekeeping force of some 1,200 Ugandan soldiers has been caught in the crossfire, pinned down at strategic sites like the air and sea ports. A Ugandan died in a mortar attack on the presidential compound on Sunday.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was in Eritrea on Monday to persuade Asmara to drop backing for the Islamists, one of his officials said. Asmara, which opposes Uganda's mission in Somalia, denies arming the Islamists.
"(President Isaias) Afwerki wants leaders to recognise the Islamic Courts Union as the legitimate government in Somalia but other leaders recognise the Transitional Federal Government," said Uganda State Minister of Regional Cooperation Isaac Musumba.
While Addis Ababa seems determined to finish off the rebels in Mogadishu, many experts say the attacks could have the opposite effect, turning Somalis further against their Christian-led neighbour, or drawing in foreign Muslim jihadists.
The administration is the 14th attempt to restore central rule in Somalia since the 1991 ouster of a dictator.
Source: Reuters, April 02, 2007