SUNDAY EDITORIAL | It is clearly a government policy to bombard civilian areas in response to insurgent mortars.

he wanton bombardment of civilian areas, such as Mogadishu's notorious Bakara market, is not a policy that will help bring order to Somalia's chaotic capital. Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein, Somalia's interim Prime Minister, has repeatedly stated that the Transitional Federal Government is willing to engage in dialogue with the armed opposition in pursuit of national reconciliation. While the Prime Minister's utterances encourage peace talks, artillery shells that kill innocent civilians in Mogadishu send a much louder message: submit or die!

Death is not a new thing on the streets of Mogadishu, where the blood of the innocent has been spilling nonstop since the outbreak of the Somali civil war in 1991. The Ethiopian tanks and the subsequent bloodbath is a new feature, but the immoral and miserable state of affairs in Mogadishu has been unchanging since, to the detriment of civil society and innocents not involved in the conflict but caught up in the crossfire.

An injured Somali is taken to the hospital in Mogadishu.AP

Mogadishu is the key to resolving Somalia's interrelated conflicts. But the government's misplaced policy of shelling neighborhoods or busy marketplaces is testament to the viciousness, not only of the Ethiopian soldiers, but of the government's unsympathetic leadership. The Ethiopian troops in Somalia have already done all that was asked of them, by Somalia's warlords and the U.S. government: dislodging Islamic rulers from Mogadishu. The rest of the job – namely, reconciliation and reconstruction – was left to the Somalis, and by extension, the international community.

The international community has not changed its woeful view of the Somali crisis. This is the same international community that looked on as the Ethiopian army invaded Somalia and installed an unpopular government, "legitimized" by the United Nations. Even if one were to overlook this grand error and its remarkable consequences, how does one then explain the international community's continued silence on ongoing bombardment of civilians in Mogadishu? No world leader is publicly denouncing the Ethiopian army's artillery onslaught on Somali civilians.

The Ethiopian troops, and their Somali counterparts, are simply soldiers taking orders. When Mogadishu's Bakara market was shelled on Saturday, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin was speaking with interim Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf at the Villa Somalia presidential compound. Various sources have confirmed the shells that landed at Bakara market, killing at least 21 civilians, were launched from Villa Somalia in response to insurgents' mortar attacks. Worse, neither President Yusuf nor any other government official has publicly sent condolences to the families of the victims.

The approval for such military action must have come from the very top, and not from military field commanders. Therefore, it is clearly a government policy to bombard civilian areas in response to insurgent mortars, which often miss their mark. Whether or not this is really the case then becomes irrelevant, because 21 dead people come from dozens of families, creating a pool of young fighters willing to join the bloody insurgency to stop the shelling of civilians.

Prime Minister Nur Adde offers hope to the masses, because he is not a warlord and he is a man the public can relate to more than others. But he must now combine positive, strong action with his words of hope if Somalia's future is to be saved from perpetual tyranny.

Stopping the ruthless bombardment of civilians is a first step in the right direction.

Garowe Online Editorial, editorial@garoweonline.com