In this issue: * EPRDF CLAIMS SUCCESS FOR OFFENSIVE AGAINST AL-ITIHAD * BUY GAS SHARES * EX-PRESIDENT OF SOMALILAND RENOUNCES SECESSION * SNU CORRECTION ____________________________________________________________________ S O M A L I A N E W S U P D A T E ____________________________________________________________________ Vol 3, No 13 May 1, 1994. ISSN 1103-1999 ____________________________________________________________________ Somalia News Update is published irregularly via electronic mail and fax. Questions can be directed to Bernhard.Helander@antro.uu.se or to fax number +46-18-151160. All SNU marked material is free to quote as long as the source is clearly stated. ____________________________________________________________________ EPRDF CLAIMS SUCCESS FOR OFFENSIVE AGAINST AL-ITIHAD (SNU, Addis Ababa, April 30, 1994) - The Ethiopian government has claimed a successful offensive against Al-Itihad, the Islamic Unity force in the Ogaden. Local sources report the movement of land and air forces of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) forces in the area. At a rare news conference, Ethiopia's Minister of Defence, Siye Abraha, said on Thursday that the EPRDF's campaign against the fundamentalist group had been successful, but reported few casualties on either side. The Minister, regarded as a hard-liner in the EPRDF, also revealed that non-lethal US military aid is on the way to Ethiopia in the form of trucks. SNU has learnt that the aid is valued at about $1.5 million. Recent statements by Dr Abdul-Mejid Hussein of the new Ethiopian Somali Democratic League have tried to lump the Ogadeni National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the extreme Al-Itihad together, although they have significant differences in policy. Among Itihad's more radical proposals is the prohibition of smoking and chewing chat. Their demands for the removal of non-ethnic Somalis from the region have interrupted relief and development operations; Medecins sans Frontieres Belgium is losing hope for their non-Somali Ethiopian assistant truck driver kidnapped by the Itihad and last seen on March 6. In Jijiga, the head of the South East Rangelands Project (SERP), Ahmed Abdulli, is held in prison under suspicion of assisting political groups such as the ONLF. Radios and vehicles belonging to the organization have been confiscated or commandeered, after the EPRDF accused the local authorities in Warder of using SERP's radios to report the killings there in March. (The EPRDF failed to capture the ONLF leader Sheikh Ibrahim Abdallah at a public rally, and according to the ONLF, 53 people were killed in the ensuing gun- battle.) SERP - a $40 million African Development Bank-funded project - is grinding to a halt as finances are frozen. It is now clear that the 21 "new faces" that beefed up support for new regional President Ugaz Abdulrahman Abdukenu (known as "Buthelezi" by the ONLF) at the Jijiga meeting are new members of the regional Council. The new appointees represent seven districts bordering Oromiya (such as Gursum) whose status was previously under dispute. Ugaz Abdulrahman met with Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi earlier this week in Addis Ababa. It is not yet clear whether Ugaz Abdulrahman has joined the new pro-government coalition party, the ESDL. The organization's flag is perhaps the most improbable design in transitional Ethiopia: it is divided diagonally in half between the five pointed star of the Republic on the top, and the Ethiopian red, gold and green tricolour on the bottom. Deliveries to Gode airport last week included several Antonov- loads of men and materiel for the EPRDF, and large quantities of election material, posters and ballot papers for the June 5 elections. BUY GAS SHARES (SNU, Addis Ababa, April 30, 1994) - With impeccable timing, an announcement appeared in The Ethiopian Herald on Wednesday 27 April, headed "BUY CALUB GAS SHARES". The Calub Natural Gas Development project agreement for the Ogaden, long under discussion between the World Bank and the Transitional Government "has been completed", according to the advertisement from "Commercial Nominees Private Limited Company". Reserves at Calub are estimated to be 68 billion cubic metres. About one third of the Calub project company - a total of 35,700 shares worth about 6 million dollars - is offered to the public for sale at all branches of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. EX-PRESIDENT OF SOMALILAND RENOUNCES SECESSION (SNU, Addis Ababa/Uppsala, April 30, 1994) - The seven-man executive committee of the Somali National Movement has formally renounced its support for the independence of Somaliland. In a statement made yesterday at the Ghion hotel in Addis Ababa, the movement's chairman Abdirahman Ahmed Ali "Tur" ("the hunchback"), said that the SNM favoured a federal structure in a future Somalia, and did not want to see the creation of more "mini-states" emerging from the Somali conflict. General Aideed on behalf of the SNA and the Addis Ababa representative of the SSDF also supported the statement, and welcomed the expected participation of the SNM in future reconciliation meetings. When pressed on the ability of his executive committee, even to speak for the Isaaq clan, quite apart from the rest of the population of Somaliland, Abdirahman (who declared Somaliland's independence in 1991) admitted that the full Central Committee of the SNM had not met for two years, and he had been abroad for some time. A critic present at the conference, pointed out that all three representatives ("Tur", Osman Jama Ali, and Ismail Hurre "Bubaa") are all from the Garhajis sub-clan of the Isaaq. Aideed has been touring the region for some time, and has met President Meles Zenawi while in Addis Ababa. The SNA's statement said that the week-long talks between the SNM and the SNA represented a "political breakthrough". There has been no comment from the Hargeisa government of Mohammed Ibrahim Egal. A biographical footnote: Abdirahman "Tur" admitted that he was born in Gashamo, inside Ethiopian territory. Since he lost the elections for the presidency in Boroma in May last year, he has been living in London. SNU CORRECTION In No. 12 of SNU it was wrongly claimed that Dr Ahmad Mumin Warfa of UNOSOM's Political Office had been shot and wounded by members of his own clan. This has turned out to be incorrect. SNU regrets the error and would like to extend its apologies both to those wrongly accused and to others that may have been affected by it. ____________________________________________________________________ SNU is an entirely independent newsletter devoted to critical analysis of the political and humanitarian developments in Somalia and Somaliland. SNU is edited and published by Dr. Bernhard Helander, Uppsala University, Sweden. SNU is produced with support from the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden. ____________________________________________________________________