MOGADISHU, 18 July 2006 — The supreme leader of Somalia’s increasingly powerful Islamist movement warned world powers yesterday against backing peacekeepers for the lawless nation where his forces are now dominant.
Speaking as the international contact group on Somalia were to meet to discuss options for restoring stability in Somalia, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said such a force was unnecessary and would be resisted.
He also rejected charges that the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) wants to replace the weak Somali transitional government as the main authority in the country but urged it to drop its refusal to meet with his group.
“I am appealing to the countries meeting not to ignore the political realities in Somalia,” he said as the contact group members prepared to meet in Brussels amid growing signs the international community may back peacekeepers.
“They should not concentrate on sending peacekeepers who are not needed here,” he said from his home region of Galgadud in central Somalia.
“Mogadishu ... is peaceful: it was pacified without any intervention from the international community,” Aweys said, referring to the ouster of warlords in June after months of bloody fighting by Islamist militia.
But the rise of the Islamists has fuelled fears of a Taleban-style takeover of Somalia, particularly as some Islamists, including Aweys, are considered extremists and accused of harboring terrorists.
They deny the charges.
Last week, the UN Security Council endorsed the possible easing of a 14-year-old arms embargo on Somalia to help support a regional peacekeeping force to back the largely powerless transitional government.
But Aweys said such a step, which has been repeatedly called for by the government, the African Union and the east African nations that would provide troops for the mission, was a “recipe” for disaster.
“The neighboring countries have geo-political interests in Somalia and to consider them peacemakers is a recipe for violence and renewed clashes which could affect the whole region,” he said.
“The problem of Somalia is not a lack of weapons, but a lack of peace and understanding of each other,” Aweys said.
He renewed calls for the government to drop its insistance on peacekeepers and lifting the embargo, maintaining the issues were keeping it from addressing the more important matter of easing tensions within Somalia.
The government boycotted Arab League-sponsored talks with Islamists in Khartoum, accusing them of violating a previous truce and recognition pact, and is now split with members of parliament over whether to drop the objections.
“The discussion of lifting of the embargo and attempts to bring peacekeepers has distracted the government from reconciliation,” Aweys said. “We are urging them to come to the negotiating table to avoid further confusion.”
The Islamists also opened a Shariah court to serve two government-controlled regions, officials said yesterday.
The Islamic movement has set up nine new courts in areas it has seized since driving out US-backed warlords from Mogadishu on June 5, but it is the first time they have established a court in an area they do not yet control.
The move is likely to inflame tensions between the Islamists and the government, which is struggling to assert its authority beyond is temporary base in the provincial town of Baidoa.
A day after the interim government agreed to continue talks with the newly powerful Islamists, the Islamic movement announced it had opened the Al-Bayan court in the Bay and Bakol area which falls under the direct control of the government.
Top Islamist leader, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, called on the Digil and Mirifle clan in those areas to cooperate.
“We ask you to hand over all your weapons to this court,” Sharif told a gathering of Islamic officials and wealthy businessmen from the two regions. “We urge all the Digil and Mirifle to support such Islamic practices.”
A wealthy Mogadishu businessman who declined to be named spoke on behalf of other businessmen from the two regions. “We are a Muslim and it is a must to practise Islam,” he said.
Many fear that tensions between the Islamists — led by longtime Yusuf foe and hard-line leader Hassan Dahir Aweys — and the government will boil over into an all-out fight for supremacy of the anarchic Horn of Africa country of 10 million.
