Ethiopia - 'Canadian Islamists' flee from Somalia

Joseph Brean
National Post

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Canadian authorities were investigating reports yesterday that an alleged Islamist fighter presented a Canadian passport when he was arrested on Monday while trying to flee war-torn Somalia through a Kenyan border crossing.

The Standard newspaper of Kenya reported that the man, an Ethiopian national, is a military commander of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, an Ethiopian separatist group that has sided with the Somalian Islamic Courts Union in its war with Ethiopia. The unnamed Ethiopian reportedly presented a Canadian passport when he was arrested at Liboi, the main border crossing between Somalia and Kenya.

The Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper reported that 10 suspected fighters were carrying large amounts of foreign currency when they attempted to make the crossing in a four-wheel drive vehicle and that they were "suspected by Kenyan security agencies to double as financiers of the Islamic Courts Union."

Other media reports, quoting local sources, said there were eight men in total -- two claiming to be Canadian, the rest Eritrean. They are being held at Garissa, a city closer to the capital, Nairobi.

"It's one thing having a Canadian passport, and it's another thing making sure that you correspond to the passport," said Rejean Beaulieu, a Foreign Affairs spokesman in Ottawa.

He said there are only two Canadians in Somalia who are registered with Ottawa, despite a travel advisory that urges Canadians not to travel there.

"But it doesn't mean there are not more. Many people around the world don't necessarily register with us," he said.

Kenyan authorities have anticipated an exodus of as many as 3,000 defeated militiamen loyal to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), an alliance of Muslim fundamentalists that wielded a shaky power over Somalia until last week.

After defeating a U.S.-backed alliance of warlords in June to take the capital, Mogadishu, the ICU rose to power throughout the south of the country, eventually seizing the port of Kismayo, which left the interim government -- supported by Ethiopia and recognized internationally -- confined to Baidoa, an inland commercial centre.

On Nov. 25 last year, a communique issued by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad, the ICU's leader, was posted to Internet message boards, calling jihadists from around the world to come fight against Ethiopia, which he said was engaged in the same "crusade war waged against Iraq and Afghanistan, and the previous war in Somalia."

The month before, the National Post reported that the ICU is composed partly of Somali- Canadians from Toronto or Ottawa who have returned to their homeland.

The highest-ranking Canadian is Abdullahi Ali Afrah, second deputy chairman of the Islamic Courts advisory body. In Toronto, he worked at the Canadian branch of Al-Barakaat, a money-transfer outlet implicated in terrorist financing.

The ICU was defeated by Ethiopian troops in a war that began Christmas Eve with the strafing of Mogadishu's airport by Ethiopian jets. Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, said his country intervened to "protect the sovereignty of the nation and to blunt repeated attacks by Islamic Courts terrorists and anti-Ethiopian elements they are supporting."

Troops of Somalia's interim government, backed by Ethiopia, retook Mogadishu four days later, prompting an exodus of fighters loyal to the ICU.

The day before, forces of the Ogaden National Liberation Front -- which waged a long and often violent campaign for independence from Ethiopia before allying themselves with the ICU -- intercepted an Ethiopian military convoy of more than 20 vehicles, destroying four of them and forcing the remainder to retreat, according to the Sudan Times.

On Christmas Day, Eritrean radio reported that the ONLF attacked another Ethiopian convoy, killing as many as 500 soldiers. And yesterday, an Ogaden Web site, quoting locals, said the ONLF launched a surprise attack on two Ethiopian military personnel carriers, killing their occupants.

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