21/11/06 (B370) Sh Network / Un Ministre Somalien dément la destruction de véhicules armés éthiopiens et la mort de soldats, mais son assistant reconnaît la présence de troupes éthiopiennes sur place. (Info lecteur)

Somali
minister denies any Ethiopian armored vehicle blasted or soldier killed Par
Aweys Osman Yusuf

Mogadishu
20, Nov.06 ( Sh.M.Network) –– Somalia’s interim government
has denied that a number of Ethiopian armored vehicles were blown up and soldiers
killed in an ambush attack on the outskirts of Baidoa, a seat for the government.

Salad
Ali Jelle, assistant minister of defense, has told Shabelle Radio in Mogadishu
that there were no clashes between number of Ethiopian troops with number
of battlewagons and armed residential militiamen in Kansah Omane environs
near Bardale district in southern Somalia.

Ironically,
the Union of Islamic Courts information secretary Abdirahim Ali Mudey, has
stated Bardale residents whom he said were against Ethiopian troops in their
country have blown up two Ethiopian armored vehicles, alleging that residents
have also killed at least 50 soldiers.

The government’s
assistant minister of defense Jelle has vehemently denied that any fighting
against Ethiopians had taken place in southern Somalia, indicating that it
was a propaganda overstated by Islamic Courts.

Somalia
has become a great political challenge for long time rival enemies, Ethiopia
and Eritrea, which fought over borders from 1998 to 2000.
Both countries have been among the ten countries recently mentioned in UN
report that were accused of providing Somalia’s vying parties with various
types of weapons.

International
experts for Somalia’s political challenges say they fear Somalia could
become a proxy war for Ethiopia and Eritrea that are deeply involved in meddling
the country’s exacerbating situations.

Jelle
admitted the presence of thousands of Ethiopian forces in Somalia’s
Bai provincial town of Baidoa where the interim government has remained largely
powerless following its formation in neighboring Kenya in 2004.

“for
the past 16 years Somalia has had no special national forces so the Ethiopians
are here to train our military troops”, he said.

Asked
if the government has ordered the publishing of billions of fake Somali shillings,
Jelle denied the government ordered fake Somali money. “The government
is legitimate. If it had to order publishing Somali shillings, the Somali
parliament has to approve it in majority”.

The minister’s
remarks came as large numbers of Ethiopian troops and armored vehicles had
crossed into the Somali border, passing through Gedo province in Southern
Somalia and then to Baidoa, the government’s temporary headquarter.