Demonstrators reject foreign peacekeepers for Somalia

Hundreds of supporters of the Islamic group that holds Somalia's capital and much of the country's south demonstrated Thursday against a proposal to deploy foreign peacekeepers.

Photo: Demonstrators reject foreign peacekeepers for Somalia

Demonstrators reject foreign peacekeepers for Somalia

A day earlier, the country's weak transitional parliament approved a plan for the deployment of Ugandan and Sudanese peacekeepers to help it try to establish stability and its authority. That step could set the government up for a confrontation with the Islamic fighters, who have repeatedly rejected the idea of foreign troops.

While the Islamic fighters are consolidating their hold over southern Somalia, the government is relegated to Baidoa, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Mogadishu. A demonstration in favor of peacekeepers was held in Baidoa Thursday.

In Mogadishu, the demonstrators gathered at the main stadium carrying placards, some of which read, "We don't need foreign peacekeepers," "We can restore peace and stability ourselves."

The transitional government, whose military consists of little more than the president's personal militia, has watched from the sidelines as the Islamic forces overcame a coalition of secular warlords to take control of southern Somalia. The Islamic forces took Mogadishu on June 6.

Later Thursday, three more members of the warlord-alliance said they had resigned from the group. The three Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, Boten Issa Allen and Abdi Wal, were senior members of the alliance and made the announcement on Mogadishu's HornAfrik Radio, although they themselves had already left the city.

Afrah and Allen are warlords who also served as Cabinet ministers of the transitional government.

Their resignation brought the number of people who have left the alliance since Wednesday to seven. leaving the alliance with just four members.

In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the African Union's Peace and Security Council endorsed travel and banking bans on warlords as well as asset freezes eastern Africa ministers agreed to on Tuesday, said Mohamed Foum, the AU's special envoy to Somalia. He did not say whether these would be applied throughout Africa, reports AP.

O.Ch.