Monday, May 4, 2009

Somalia opposition leader calls on insurgents to keep fighting

A prominent Somali opposition leader has refused to meet the president and called on Islamist insurgents to keep fighting the government and African Union peacekeepers.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who returned to Somalia recently after two years in exile, said he could not support President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Mohamed because he is backed by the international community.

Sheikh Sharif, however, has said he is prepared to meet his old ally, who is seen as potentially crucial in bringing stability to Somalia.

Elders from the Hawiye clan, with whom Sheikh Aweys met on Sunday, said they would keep trying to persuade the hardline Islamist to embrace peace.

Aweys, who the United States says is a terrorist with links to al- Qaeda, fled to Eritrea in early 2007 after Ethiopian forces ousted the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), of which he was a leader.

Somali was also a leader of the UIC, and the two men formed the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) together after the UIC fell.

However, they split when Sheikh Sharif - the more moderate of the two - took part in the UN-sponsored peace process that saw him elected as president in January after Ethiopia pulled its forces out.

Somalia has been embroiled in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The insurgency has claimed the lives of over 15,000 civilians since early 2007 and the resultant insecurity has helped feed an explosion of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.


Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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