Somalia viewed as site of proxy war

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A mysterious Russian-built cargo plane believed to be loaded with weapons landed in this capital yesterday , setting off a fresh round of allegations that Somalia has become a proxy battleground for its neighbors Eritrea and Ethiopia.

The United States and other Western powers have cautioned outsiders against meddling in Somalia, which has no single ruling authority and can be manipulated by anyone with money and guns. But there's little sign the warning has been heeded.

Somalia's virtually powerless government charged yesterday that the Ilyushin-76, only the second flight to land at Mogadishu International Airport in a decade, was packed with land mines, bombs, and guns. It said the shipment had come from Eritrea, which supports the Islamic militia that has seized the capital along with most of southern Somalia.

Hours later, a UN envoy confirmed that troops from Ethiopia, Eritrea's foe, were in Somalia to protect the defenseless government from the advancing Islamic forces.

Somali government leaders and Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry previously have denied Ethiopian soldiers were in the country. However, many witnesses have confirmed their presence.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody border war from 1998-2000, and have since backed rebel groups to destabilize each other. Somalia could become a new front in their conflict.

``Ethiopia and Eritrea are competing throughout the region, opening up new fronts in their cold war whenever the opportunity arises," said John Prendergast, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, which monitors conflict zones.

The United States also has been involved in Somalia. It secretly backed nonreligious militias that were driven out of Mogadishu by the Islamists, and now supports the government.

The United States has accused the Islamic militia of ties to Al Qaeda, whose leader, Osama bin Laden, called for support of the militia in a recent recording.

The new proxy fight between Ethiopia and Eritrea is officially denied by both countries, despite witness accounts and reports by the United Nations describing Somalia's plight.

A UN committee monitoring the arms embargo on Somalia named Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Yemen as countries backing different factions fighting inside the country. Another country went unnamed in the report, but was widely believed to be the United States.

``Eritrea is only in there because of Ethiopia," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somalia Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn. ``The US is simply extending its war on terrorism."

Eritrea's information minister, Ali Abdu, told the Associated Press yesterday that his country was not sending arms to the Islamic militia, and charged that Ethiopia was ``exploiting the current situation in order to solve their historical dispute with Somalia."

Somalia has been without an effective government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, carving the country into armed camps ruled by violence and clan law.