Ethiopian troops occupy Mogadishu

The seizure of the capital was hailed by Ethiopia as the crowning moment of its US proxy war against Somalia. Bereket Simon, an adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, optimistically told the Washington Post, “This is a golden opportunity for Somalia. The extremists have been defeated. Our hope is the situation will quickly stabilize.”

Ethiopia’s stated objective is to establish the US-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in power. Its prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, promised “a new life” for Somalis after he drove into the capital through flower-strewn streets to be greeted by cheering crowds.

A spokesman for TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was no less triumphant. He told the New York Times, “We always knew these Islamists weren’t all they were cracked up to be. And now we are where they used to be, in control of Mogadishu.” He added, more realistically, “as much as anyone can be in control of Mogadishu.”

The apparent ease with which Ethiopia has been able to occupy Mogadishu has surprised many observers, who doubted the ability of the Ethiopians to take the capital. What seems to have happened is that clan leaders withdrew their support for the Islamic Courts movement when they saw the scale of the offensive they were facing.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/soma-d30.shtml