Somali PM addresses Mogadishu opinion Leaders

By Mohammed Abdi Farah

S

omali’s interim Prime Minister Prof. Ali Mohamed Ghedi said that the military mission by the Ethiopia-Somalia forces against the Islamists was completed and the government would work out the peace and stability in the country vowing to hunt down the remnants of the defeated Islamic Courts Union.
More than thousand heavily armed Ethiopian forces on military convoys along with interim government troops have moved into the Somalia capital where hundreds of Mogadishu’s people welcomed them with hospitality.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said in a news conference held in Addis Ababa that his Ethiopian forces have entered Mogadishu but asserted that Ethiopia government would track down the extremists in the region until to their end.
He said his government would cooperate with the international community not to let the terrorists escape by sea or land.
He indicated the Ethiopian troops would withdraw from Somalia when the government is able to handle the control of whole Somalia.
Premier Ali Ghedi delivered a speech to elders, intellectuals, officials of civil society groups and some of the defected parliamentarians who he met at the building of late Emirates president Sheik Bin Ziad Anahyan in Afgoye town, 30 km south of the capital Mogadishu.
“I am telling everyone that state of emergency will be imposed on the capital until the government and the Ethiopian troops secure the capital Mogadishu,” said Gedi. “No clan will be allowed to possess weapons of any kind and also no one will claim illegal grounds or homes,”
All the weapons he said will be collected to specific military locations in Somalia according to the government law.
Ghedi, accompanied by his deputy minister Hussein Mohamed Aideed, said Somalis should not feel worry but trust their government and help restore peace and security.
Ghedi seemed to be much confident that Ethiopian forces would help along the way. “Our good Ethiopian friends will help the government restore the law and order,” He said Somalia people should forget the created animosity between Somalia and Ethiopia but people must see Ethiopians as good neighbors.
He latest remarks came as residents in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia were waiting for arrival of government officials in the city.
Hussen Aideed, the Interior minister of Somalia, who talked to the reporters, said his government would move to Mogadishu. “The president will settle his Presidential Palace popularly known as Villa Somalia in Mogadishu.

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