02:08 p.m Aug 06, 1998 Eastern
By Mohamed Guled
MOGADISHU, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Ethiopian troops crossed into the town of Bulo Hawo in southwestern Somalia on Thursday in an apparent attempt to quash a peace agreement between two rival Somali factions, witnesses and a local faction leader said.
Ethiopian government officials were unavailable for comment.
The witnesses, who spoke by VHF radio to the Somali capital, said hundreds of Ethiopian troops backed by at least 20 armoured personnel carriers crossed the border at around 7.30 a.m. (0430 GMT). They said there was no fighting.
Mohamud Samatar of the Somali National Front (SNF) said Ethiopian troops sealed off the town of Bulo Hawo and tried to discuss developments with his faction.
Samatar said Ethiopia sent soldiers across the border because of its opposition to a peace agreement, announced on Wednesday, between the SNF and fundamentalist Al-Ittihad Al-Islam (Islamic Unity).
Local elders said the agreement had been signed after 20 days of talks.
Ethiopian soldiers last June invaded Somalia and briefly captured the towns of Bulo Hawo and Luq, ejecting Al-Ittihad forces, according to aid agencies and witnesses in Bardera, the capital of Gedo region. Ethiopia denied the reports.
As a result of the fighting SNF forces took control of Gedo and militia attacks in the region largely ceased.
Ethiopia sent troops into the same area twice in 1996, calling al-Ittihad a ``multi-national terrorist group.''
Islamic fundamentalists are suspected by the government in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, of responsibility for bomb attacks on soft targets like hotels in the last few years.
This weeks peace deal was agreed between Al-Ittihad and the SNF in the town of El-Adde in the Gedo region, close to the border with Kenya and Ethiopia.
The meeting was attended by more than 700 delegates and a six-point agreement was signed by Ali Mohamed Mukhtar, the deputy chairman of the SNF faction, and Sheikh Mohamud Moallin Nur, the deputy chairman of Al-Ittihad, the elders said.
The plan calls for an end to fighting, opening local roads and clearing them of mines, use of the SNF symbol as the political sign for the region and the reimposition of Islamic Sharia law.
The two sides agreed to meet again in the regions capital Garbahanrey, 60 km (40 miles) east of El-Adde, to discuss the restructuring of SNF and Al-Ittihad.
Somalia has been without a central government since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and is carved up into clan-based fiefdoms.
Last month Puntland, in northeast Somalia, announced it was setting up its own administration as the Federal State of Puntland, and this week Mogadishus main warlords agreed to set up a joint administration for the capital.
Somaliland, in northwest Somalia, also broke away in 1991, but remains an unrecognised republic.