Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

Foreigners captured, wounded in Somalia - Zenawi
09 Jan 2007 11:51:53 GMT
Source: Reuters
•  Somalia troubles

•  Sudan conflicts

PARIS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Nationals from Britain, Canada, Pakistan and Sudan were among those captured or wounded during the ouster of Somalia's Islamist rulers, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in an interview published on Tuesday.

"Many international terrorists" were killed in the fighting although the precise number of prisoners was not known, Zenawi told the Le Monde newspaper.

"Photographs have been taken and passports from different countries collected. The Kenyans are detaining Eritrean and Canadian passport holders," Zenawi said.

"We have wounded people coming from Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan and the United Kingdom," he added.

Zenawi denied Ethiopia had walked into an Iraq-style trap by intervening in Somalia and repeated a pledge that his troops would quit the neighbouring African state within weeks.

"I think Westerners have in mind the experience of Iraq and Afghanistan and are transposing it to Somalia, which is a very different country," Zenawi told Le Monde.

"In reality, since we took control of Mogadishu there has been no significant violence," he said. "We will withdraw as soon as possible, in the coming weeks. But we will do it responsibly, in a way that does not leave a security vacuum."

Zenawi rejected suggestions Ethiopia would get bogged down in Somalia just as U.S. forces had done when they intervened in the early 1990s.

"I don't think the risk exists because we do not have any project to remodel the country according to our own views. Our programme consists of supporting Somali solutions aimed at resolving Somali problems," Zenawi said.


AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article       Send comments

Emergencies

•  Sudan conflicts

•  Somalia troubles

MORE >>

Countries

Small country map
© 2004 Europa Technologies Ltd.
Reset map

•  Ethiopia profile
· View map

•  Pakistan profile
· View map

•  Somalia profile
· View map

•  Sudan profile
· View map

•  Yemen profile
· View map

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  GlobalMedic aids Indonesia
DMGF

•  Sudan's North-South peace is fragile, aid agencies warn
IRC - USA

•  LWF General Secretary Heads Interfaith Delegation to Khartoum and Juba
LWF - Switzerland

•  Food, water, shelter and health for residents of Kashtera Camp
CWS

•  Pakistan: helping quake survivors cope with a tough winter
IFRC - Switzerland

MORE >>

Latest news

•  French police arrest two ETA suspects

•  British doctors condemn plastic surgery lottery

•  Foreigners captured, wounded in Somalia - Zenawi

•  Chad: 20,000 more displaced in last three weeks

•  U.S. strikes at al Qaeda in Somalia, "many dead"

MORE >>

Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Tue Jan 9 12:22:15 2007