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Stay or not
to stay in Somalia |
21/12/2007 N°
1228
The Indian Ocean Newsletter
When he speaks in public on the subject, the
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi denies
that his country’s troops are having a hard
time bringing the Islamic rebels in Somalia
to heel. He even accuses United Nations
agencies of not having been "positive"
enough on the role played by the Ethiopian
forces there. However, the internal
discussions within the Ethiopian military
executive are far less optimistic.
On 11 December 2007, from 11 in the morning
until well after nightfall, Meles Zenawi
held a meeting with his generals behind
closed doors to evaluate the situation in
Somalia. Those present included the army
chief of staff Samora Yunis. According to
information obtained by The Indian Ocean
Newsletter, several participants in this
conclave reached the conclusion that the
Ethiopian army is faltering through the poor
quality of its intelligence sources on the
situation in Somalia. The morale of
Ethiopian troops on the ground is at a low
ebb in the face of repeated attacks by
insurgents and the Somalian Transitional
Federal Government’s inability to cope.
A few generals went as far as to suggest
withdrawing the Ethiopian troops, at least
from certain neighbourhoods in Mogadishu.
One of the participants even said that in
the event of a full retreat, the Ethiopian
servicemen should be disarmed, in order to
avert a possible mutiny. But the majority of
the generals present in the meeting rejected
this proposal. They pointed out that
disarming an elite force would have a
detrimental effect on the morale of the rest
of the army and so cause even more problems.
In the end, nothing was decided and no date
set for a further meeting on this subject.
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