Somali opposition leaders meeting in Eritrea united Wednesday in a common alliance against Ethiopian forces, warning Addis Ababa it was "now or never" for its troops to withdraw. The new opposition coalition, called the Alliance for the Liberation of Somalia, includes a 191-member "central committee" that will function as a parliament.
A 10-person "executive committee" is expected to be elected later Wednesday and announced on Thursday, closing the opposition congress that kicked off in the Eritrean capital Asmara on September 6.
"We have reached a concrete and viable resolution in seven days... something few Somali conferences have been able to do," congress spokesman Zakariya Mahamud Abdi told reporters. But he also had a stark warning for Ethiopian troops, heavily deployed in Somalia since they rescued embattled transitional government forces last year.
"We warn Ethiopia to withdraw immediately... it is now or never and in a few weeks they will not have a route to withdraw," Abdi said. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys - wanted by Washington over suspected links to al Qaeda - and several other key leaders of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that briefly controlled large parts of Somalia last year were present at the meeting.
The Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has blamed the Islamists for the violence that has continued to rock the devastated seaside capital. But the opposition forces gathered in Asmara have retorted that their struggle against Ethiopian occupation was legitimate and blamed Ethiopia and its US allies for the continued instability in Somalia.
"We will have a two-track strategy - the first to engage the international community and regional countries to support us in our cause," Abdi said. "We are the victims and Ethiopia are the villains." The 350 opposition figures and representatives of the diaspora gathered in Eritrea also discussed their military strategy against Ethiopia, whose vastly superior military inflicted a heavy defeat on the ICU earlier this year. "The other (track) will be armed struggle - what was taken by force will be taken back by force," Abdi said.
The central committee was expanded after debate by 40 members from 151 to 191 to allow more participants inside Somalia, including "several military commanders".He also added that the alliance will be "inclusive", representing all sections of Somali society. "We are not going to have Taliban-style or extremist religious rule... We are not terrorists." Abdi said the delegates had vowed to work and fight until Somali was freed and urged the Somalia population to do the same.
"The Somali people are warriors. We have no real military machines but we are a people armed to the teeth - there are 1.5 million small arms in Somalia," he said.
The elected leaders of the new alliance are expected to remain in Eritrea to hold further consultations but participants in the congress that the organisation would then locate its headquarters inside Somalia.
Abdi reiterated the opposition's call on the United States to change its policies in Somalia and the rest of the region. "There are no terrorists in Somalia, but the policies of the United States will create extremists by their presence," he said. "It is very dangerous and we don't want to engage the region in a religious dog fight."
Washington said recently it was mulling adding Ethiopia's arch-foe Eritrea to its list of "state sponsors of terrorism", which includes countries such as North Korea, Cuba and Iran. The opposition figures gathered in Asmara boycotted a six-week clanic reconciliation conference in Mogadishu which was sponsored by the international community and wrapped up late last month with no major breakthrough.
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