The US has urged Ethiopia not to send its troops back into Somalia.

The senior US official for African policy Johnnie Carson told Reuters news agency such a move would be against the interests of both nations.

Ethiopia invaded Somalia in late 2006 to topple an Islamist movement in the capital Mogadishu, sparking an insurgency which is still raging.

Ethiopian troops pulled out in January but witness say their forces continue to make regular incursions.

"The Ethiopian government continues to look very closely at developments in Somalia," said Mr Carson before a scheduled trip to Addis Ababa on Monday.

"Given the long-standing enmity between Somalis and Ethiopians, I will encourage the Ethiopians not to re-engage in Somalia," he said.

He said such a move could prove "counterproductive" for Somalia's fragile transitional government.

Ethiopia's troops invaded in 2006 in support of the transitional government after Islamist rebels had declared a jihad on Ethiopia.

The US allied itself with Ethiopia and is widely reported to have provided Ethiopian forces with intelligence support during the conflict.

Since Ethiopian forces pulled out, Somalia's long-running civil war has continued apace.

Since May more than 165,000 people have fled Mogadishu amid fighting between Islamists hardliners and government forces.

The African Union has 4,300 soldiers in Mogadishu attempting to protect the capital.

Africa backs Somalia troops plea

The African Union has supported the Somali government's request for its neighbours to send troops to help it fight Islamist insurgents.

Ethiopia has said it would need an international mandate before its soldiers would return to Somalia.

A BBC correspondent in Ethiopia says it remains to be seen whether the AU's statement will be enough.

Somalia's speaker of parliament at the weekend admitted the government had been "weakened" by Islamist insurgents.

Last week alone, the security minister, Mogadishu's police chief and an MP were killed.

An alliance of militant Islamist hardliners controls much of southern Somalia.

Speaker of parliament Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur on Saturday said there was a "state of emergency" and asked for support within 24 hours.

He said that the radical Islamist group al-Shabab, which is accused of links to al-Qaeda, was using foreign fighters.

But al-Shabab says the suicide bomber who killed Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden and at least 34 others in Beledweyne on Thursday was a Somali man and named him as Mohamed Deerow Sheikh Adam.
map

On Monday, AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping said in a statement that the Somali government "has the right to seek support from AU members states and the larger international community."

The African Union has some 4,300 peacekeepers in Mogadishu, but their mandate prevents them from attacking the Islamist hardliners except for in self-defence.

The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says Ethiopia troops did fight the insurgents and so all eyes are on Ethiopia to see if it will respond.

On Sunday, Ethiopian Information Minister Bereket Simon said: "Any further action from Ethiopia regarding Somalia will be done according to international community decision."

Ethiopia's troops left Somalia in January under a UN peace deal after spending two years battling insurgents in the country.

Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991. Its UN-backed transitional government controls only parts of Mogadishu, but little of the rest of the country.

Some four million people in Somalia - or about one-third of the population - need food aid, according to aid agencies. 

BBC

ADDIS ABABA, June 30 (Reuters) - A draft Ethiopian law could define criticism of the government as a "terrorist act" and be used to crack down on the opposition if it is passed by parliament, a rights group said on Tuesday.

The draft "anti-terrorism proclamation" was drawn up after Africa's second most populous country said it faced threats from several internal rebel groups.

A group of 32 mostly former and serving military officers are on trial accused of planning to topple the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

"As drafted, the law could provide a new and potent tool for suppressing political opposition and independent criticism of government policy," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

"It could turn political speech and peaceful protest into terrorist acts."

The law would classify acts that cause serious damage to property or disruption of a public service as terrorism. It would also criminalise speech that may be interpreted as "encouraging terrorism".

Human Rights Watch urged legislators to redraft the bill.

Ethiopian government head of information, Bereket Simon, said the New York-based group had misinterpreted the law.

"The law is only intended to curb terrorist threats," Bereket told Reuters. "It fully recognises the right of Ethiopians to engage in any peaceful political activity."

"Opposition parties have every right to criticise the government."

Ethiopia will hold national elections in 2010 and the opposition routinely accuses the government of harassment, closing down their offices and intimidating their candidates.

Meles denies that and says the opposition parties are trying to ruin the government's image.

The 2005 elections -- billed as Ethiopia's first truly democratic poll -- ended in violence when the government claimed victory and the opposition said the vote had been fixed.

About 200 protesters were killed by police and soldiers when they took to the streets.

Jacob Lew, deputy to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visited Ethiopia on Monday and said the United States had "every hope" the 2010 poll would be democratic.

Secular Ethiopia is the key U.S. ally in the volatile Horn of Africa region and sent troops into neighbouring Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist group who controlled the country. (Editing by Wangui Kanina and Alison Williams)

By Barry Malone

ADDIS ABABA, June 30 (Reuters) - A draft Ethiopian law could define criticism of the government as a "terrorist act" and be used to crack down on the opposition if it is passed by parliament, a rights group said on Tuesday.

The draft "anti-terrorism proclamation" was drawn up after Africa's second most populous country said it faced threats from several internal rebel groups.

A group of 32 mostly former and serving military officers are on trial accused of planning to topple the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

"As drafted, the law could provide a new and potent tool for suppressing political opposition and independent criticism of government policy," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

"It could turn political speech and peaceful protest into terrorist acts."

The law would classify acts that cause serious damage to property or disruption of a public service as terrorism. It would also criminalise speech that may be interpreted as "encouraging terrorism".

Human Rights Watch urged legislators to redraft the bill.

Ethiopian government head of information, Bereket Simon, said the New York-based group had misinterpreted the law.

"The law is only intended to curb terrorist threats," Bereket told Reuters. "It fully recognises the right of Ethiopians to engage in any peaceful political activity."

"Opposition parties have every right to criticise the government."

Ethiopia will hold national elections in 2010 and the opposition routinely accuses the government of harassment, closing down their offices and intimidating their candidates.

Meles denies that and says the opposition parties are trying to ruin the government's image.

The 2005 elections -- billed as Ethiopia's first truly democratic poll -- ended in violence when the government claimed victory and the opposition said the vote had been fixed.

About 200 protesters were killed by police and soldiers when they took to the streets.

Jacob Lew, deputy to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visited Ethiopia on Monday and said the United States had "every hope" the 2010 poll would be democratic.

Secular Ethiopia is the key U.S. ally in the volatile Horn of Africa region and sent troops into neighbouring Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist group who controlled the country. (Editing by Wangui Kanina and Alison Williams)

By Barry Malone

Supporters of imprisoned Ethiopian political leader Birtukan Mideksa have marched in the streets of Addis Ababa to demand her release. The march was the first officially sanctioned political demonstration since the violent protests of 2005.
A carefully controlled group of 250 people marche

d to the offices of Ethiopia's president and prime minister Thursday to present petitions demanding freedom for opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa.
The 35-year-old former judge was first jailed after the disputed 2005 elections, in which her party claimed victory. She was among dozens of opposition leaders sentenced to life, but later released after a pardon agreement with the government.
Birtukan was re-arrested in December and ordered to serve out her life sentence after rejecting a government demand that she make a public statement acknowledging that she asked for the pardon.

Among those participating in Thursday's demonstration was former Ethiopian president Negasso Gidada, who left office after a dispute with the ruling party in 2001. Negasso, who is a member of parliament says Birtukan should be freed because her re-arrest was illegal.

"If she was found guilty, she should have been brought in front of a court, they should have accused her and brought her to court and had her sentenced again, but they didn't do that," said Gidada. "They just picked her from the street and put her in prison. And that is not the way justice would do."
Government officials have refused to budge in the face of strong pressure to release Birtukan, who is an unmarried mother of a four-year-old daughter. Communications Minister Bereket Simon told reporters last week the government has no intention of re-opening the case on humanitarian grounds.
"No. Not at all," said Simon. "It's a judicially resolved case and the government has no mandate to intervene in implementing the decision."

A spokesman for the Unity for Democracy and Justice party, Hailu Araya, says opposition leaders plan to make Birtukan's case a main issue in next year's national elections. He calls her imprisonment an affront to the rule of law.
"There must be a way out. Just because government officials say there is no way out doesn't mean there is no way out," said Hailu. "We have to, through persistence, through pressure, we want the rule of law to be respected. If the rule of law is respected, there is a way of having her released."
Unity for Democracy and Justice party officials say the permit allowing 250 people to march Thursday was the first of its kind granted by the government since the violent post-2005 election protests that led to Birtukan's arrest. Those protests claimed the lives of nearly 200 opposition supporters killed in clashes with government forces.

Among those joining this latest demonstration was Birtukan's 72-year-old mother, Almaz Gebregziabhere, who has been one of the few visitors allowed to see her daughter in prison.

Birtukan served seven years on the federal bench, one of Ethiopia's youngest judges, before resigning in 2000 to run for parliament. She said at the time she was resigning her judgeship because of government interference in the judiciary.

VOA News
By Peter Heinlein