Ethiopia denies Amnesty mosque killings accusation

Ethiopian soldiers stand near a caché of rocket propelled grenades recovered in northern Mogadishu April 23, 2008.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia rejected on Monday accusations by Amnesty International that its soldiers killed 21 people at a Somali mosque as "lies" and "propaganda".

The rights group said on Wednesday the soldiers, stationed in Somalia to bolster the interim government, had also captured dozens of children in raid on the Al Hidaaya mosque earlier this week during operations against Islamist insurgents.

It said an imam and several Islamic scholars were among the dead, and that seven victims had their throats slit.

"Amnesty's allegations are unsubstantiated lies and propaganda that they received from Islamic groups in Somalia. Ethiopia has never been involved in such incidents," said Information Ministry spokesman Zemedkun Tekle.

"Ethiopia would have been surprised if Amnesty had said something positive about Ethiopia rather than its usual lies."

Bereket Simon, President Meles Zenawi's special adviser, also criticized the report, noting that the human rights group has no presence in the Horn of Africa nation.

"Amnesty International has no representatives on the ground in Somalia," he told Reuters. "It is gathering hearsay and accusing Ethiopia based on false information."

Some moderate Islamist leaders in Somalia have postponed plans to attend U.N.-sponsored peace talks after the mosque incident and an escalation of fighting in Mogadishu.

"BRUTAL KILLINGS"

Residents said four more corpses were found in the coastal capital on Wednesday, bringing the death toll from last weekend's shelling and seizure of small towns by the Islamists' to at least 103. The clashes were the worst in recent months.

In a statement, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes urged protection for civilians and criticized the mosque raid.

"He also strongly condemned the brutal killings that occurred on 20 April at Al Hidaaya mosque in Heliwaa district of Mogadishu, where women and children were present," said a statement from his New York office.

Holmes' statement said heavy artillery was used in residential areas during recent clashes. "Combatants appear to have little regard for the safety of civilians in Mogadishu, where residents have been traumatized by years of violence."

The Islamist insurgents -- remnants of a sharia courts movement ousted from their strongholds in Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia at the end of 2006 -- view the presence of traditional foe Ethiopia in their country as an "occupation".

Civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict, which a local rights group says killed 6,500 people last year. One million Somalis live as internal refugees.

The government is struggling to assert its authority in Somalia, deprived of an effective central government since the 1991 toppling of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

- Additional reporting by Barry Malone, and Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi

(Writing by Katie Nguyen; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

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