About 200 Somali Canadians and their supporters demonstrated against American involvement in Somalia yesterday at the U.S. consulate in downtown Toronto.
Waving signs that read "Stop Bush's war on terror," "U.S. stop proxy war" and "Troops out of Somalia now," the peaceful crowd listened to speakers decrying recent U.S. air strikes that missed their Al Qaeda targets but killed 70 nomadic herdsmen, according to British aid agency Oxfam.
The U.S. denied reports of civilian casualties.
"We are upset by recent developments, especially the use of military force," said Shukria Dini, one of the event's organizers, a member of the Coalition of Concerned Somali-Canadians and a graduate student in women's studies at York University.
"This is not about religion – I'm not supporting Islamic groups. It's about illegal occupation by foreign troops."
U.S. forces entered Somalia in December when Ethiopia launched an attack against Somalia's Islamic movement. U.S. officials told Associated Press this month special forces were in Somalia hunting Al Qaeda fighters and providing military advice to Ethiopian and Somali forces.
Somalia, a country of 7 million, has been consumed by civil war since clan warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Meanwhile, the last major warlord to withhold support from Somalia's government surrendered his weapons and militiamen in Jowhar, 80 kilometres north of Mogadishu yesterday, Associated Press reported.
Mohamed Dheere, one of the most feared warlords in Somalia, gave the army chief 23 trucks mounted with heavy weapons and ordered 220 of his fighters to report for training at
Source: Toronto Star, Jan 21, 2007