Monday March 21, 2005 5:01 PM
By OSMAN HASSAN
Associated Press Writer
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Tens of thousands of demonstrators waved Somali and U.S. flags Monday as they denounced any attempt to send Ethiopian troops to their Horn of Africa country to secure Mogadishu for the government-in-exile's return home.
The protesters gathered in the capital's main soccer stadium to show support for a vote last week by the transitional parliament to keep neighboring countries from deploying troops to Somalia. The prime minister has since said the resolution was invalid, sparking more demonstrations.
The new transitional government was formed late last year to bring peace to Somalia, which has not had a central government since clan-based warlords overthrew the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The warlords then turned on each other, sinking the nation of 7 million into anarchy.
Somalia's government and parliament are based in Kenya because the capital of Mogadishu is considered unsafe. The peacekeeping force has been proposed as part of plans for the government to return home.
President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, a close ally of Ethiopia, has not ruled out having Ethiopian troops help protect his government. But anti-Ethiopian sentiment runs high in Mogadishu, where resentment lingers from a 1970s war between the two countries and repeated Ethiopian incursions into Somalia since then.
The mayor of the capital, Ibrahim Omar Sabriye Shawey, said Mogadishu needs a government, but Somalis remain proud of their country and their independence.
``Our government members and parliament must work together,'' he said. ``Let's tell the world, Somalia is not a no man's land. We will defend our country from any enemy.''
Somali ministers, Islamic clerics and the U.S. State Department have all said sending troops from neighboring countries would derail fragile efforts to restore peace in the nation. Protesters waved American flags in appreciation of the U.S. statement.
The crowd also protested the arrest by Kenyan police of Minister of Commerce Muse Sudi Yalahow, a former warlord, and two other members of parliament for assaulting another lawmaker when the debate over foreign peacekeepers last week devolved into a brawl. Yalahow and his militia control part of Mogadishu.
Habiba Farah Roble, a former major from the national army, vowed to defend Somalia from Ethiopian troops. ``We fought Ethiopia and we will fight them again if they try to come into Somalia,'' she said.
Cabinet ministers from seven East African nations met in Nairobi last week and proposed a total of 6,800 peacekeepers, first from Sudan and Uganda, followed by troops from the African Union, and only then by Ethiopian, Kenyan and Djibouti.