Many hope moderate leader will be able to build enough support to achieve peace.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Pumped-up mobs poured into the scarred streets of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, once again Saturday, but this time, they were demonstrating in support of the government, not against it.
Thousands of cheerful Somalis sang, whistled and hoisted up posters of Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a moderate Muslim cleric who was chosen Saturday by the Somali parliament to be the beleaguered country's new president. There was even a pro-government rally at a Mogadishu soccer stadium.
"It's good to give a chance to the Islamists," said Mohamed Wehlie, a teacher in Mogadishu. Ahmed, he said, "is the sort of man who can make a change, and we really need a change."
To many Somalis who have survived relentless cycles of rebellion, displacement, famine and war, Ahmed's victory was the best news they had heard in years. Although the weak government he leads is locked in a battle against Muslim extremist militias, which control large parts of the country, many Somalis seized on the news as a window of hope.
The ouster in December of the transitional president, who was a widely reviled warlord, and Saturday's election of Ahmed, 45, a cleric who is generally respected as being scholarly and temperate, are seen as an opportunity to bring together Somalia's warring factions and end 18 years of chaos.
Several moderate Muslim militias, which control different parts of the country, have indicated that they will throw their military muscle behind Ahmed and will fight to keep him in power.
Ahmed has cultivated the loyalty of some of the more moderate militia leaders and the important businessmen who bankroll them. But it is unclear if that's enough support to defeat the more radical groups.
The government currently controls only a few city blocks in Mogadishu.
Source: NY Times, Feb 01, 2009
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