Eutrusca
26-06-2006, 15:22
COMMENTARY: Another hotbed of terrorism in the works here, or just another warlord? God help Africa!
New Militant Leader Emerges in Mogadishu (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/world/africa/26somalia.html?hp&ex=1151380800&en=e1b1bfed28630a6e&ei=5094&partner=homepage)
By MARC LACEY
Published: June 26, 2006
NAIROBI, Kenya, June 25 — The jockeying for power inside Somalia took a potentially ominous turn over the weekend as a Muslim sheik whom the Bush administration has linked to terrorism emerged as the leader of the Islamic militants who seized control of the capital, Mogadishu, earlier this month.
The sheik, Hassan Dahir Aweys, was appointed the leader of the Council of the Islamic Courts, the newly formed governing entity of the movement that ousted Mogadishu's secular warlords on June 5. Previously, the public face of the Islamists had been Sharif Ahmed, a more moderate sheik who had spoken of his desire to work with the West.
The emergence of Mr. Aweys may represent another setback for the Bush administration's policy in Somalia. Mr. Aweys, a former military colonel, was vice chairman of Al Itihaad, an Islamic group that Washington labeled a terrorist group in the weeks after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Mr. Aweys, 71, who wears a bushy beard dyed bright red with henna in the traditional Somali way, was similarly cited for links to terrorism and barred from visiting the United States. No evidence to back up the claim was given at the time.
Usually reclusive, Mr. Aweys has spoken to reporters in recent months, disavowing links with terrorism and accusing the West of being too quick to label Islamist leaders throughout the Muslim world extremists. [ HA! ]
Still, Mr. Aweys, of the powerful Ayr clan, has publicly told followers that God would forgive them for spilling the blood of any foreign peacekeepers who set foot on Somali soil. He has also said Somalis who hand over their countrymen to American operatives in exchange for cash are guilty of "selling us to the Jews."
Mr. Aweys was appointed to lead a new 88-member council at a meeting of hundreds of Islamic leaders in Mogadishu on Saturday night. Earlier in the week, a delegation of Somali Islamists agreed to recognize and work together with the secular government that was formed in 2004 after long peace negotiations involving all of Somalia's clans. That United Nations-backed government, based in the provincial town of Baidoa because Mogadishu had been considered too dangerous for it to relocate there, is struggling to gain a foothold.
Mr. Aweys has repeatedly declared that an Islamic state is the only answer for Somalia, which has effectively been in anarchy since its last government fell in 1991. Mr. Aweys is a critic of the secular government and a longtime foe of its president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
In the 1990's, Mr. Aweys and Mr. Yusuf led military campaigns against each other, and those who know them say the enmity remains.
"The Western world should respect our own ideas in choosing the way we want to govern our country, the way we want to go about our own business," Mr. Aweys said in an interview with The Associated Press last fall. "That is our right."
In recent years, the United States backed a covert program to pay Mogadishu's warlords for their assistance in tracking down those in Somalia with links to terrorism.
That policy backfired, however, when Islamists banded together earlier this year and took on the American-backed warlords, ousting them from the capital. In an effort to recover, American officials have in recent weeks lent their support to Somalia's transitional government, which had only lukewarm backing from Washington before.
The Bush administration has said its top priority in Somalia remains rooting out members of Al Qaeda who Washington believes are being protected in Mogadishu.
"It is very clear that there are foreign terrorists in Somalia," Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters in Nairobi last week.
She called for the Islamic leaders in Mogadishu to hand them over, citing the names of three foreigners who she said were in Somalia and have been linked to terrorist attacks in East Africa — Fazul Abdullah Mohammed of Comoros, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan of Kenya and Abu Taha al-Sudani of Sudan.
Somalia watchers were still waiting Sunday for signs of whether the appointment of Mr. Aweys represented a significant shift in the Islamic leaders' intentions toward the West.
"It's too early to have a complete assessment," said Mario Raffaelli, the Italian special envoy for Somalia. "We have to see if they are dropping dialogue or just adding more voices to the discussion."
In fact, some analysts said that the appointment of Mr. Aweys might prove a good thing by bringing his hard-line views into the open. Sharif Ahmed, the movement's former leader, considered more of a moderate in his views toward secular government, remains head of a newly formed executive committee that will handle day-to-day affairs, officials said.
"Engagement is still the answer," said Mr. Raffaelli, who has urged his government and others following developments in Somalia not to respond precipitously to the elevation of Mr. Aweys. "To say a so-called bad guy is in charge will only serve to reinforce the extremists. This movement continues to have moderate voices."
Mr. Aweys's backers are known to be well armed, and his ascendance is seen as connected to a regional struggle in the Horn of Africa. A May 2006 report by a United Nations panel of experts studying violations to the arms embargo in Somalia said Mr. Aweys's militant group still had operations in the country and had received numerous arms shipments from Eritrea, which analysts say is trying to destabilize its avowed enemy, Ethiopia.
Mr. Aweys has clashed in the past with Ethiopia. His militia was soundly defeated by the Ethiopian Army in the early 1990's. Ethiopian officials have made it clear in recent months that they do not intend to allow any government that threatens stability in their country to emerge in Somalia.
Abukar Albadri contributed reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia, for this article.
New Militant Leader Emerges in Mogadishu (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/world/africa/26somalia.html?hp&ex=1151380800&en=e1b1bfed28630a6e&ei=5094&partner=homepage)
By MARC LACEY
Published: June 26, 2006
NAIROBI, Kenya, June 25 — The jockeying for power inside Somalia took a potentially ominous turn over the weekend as a Muslim sheik whom the Bush administration has linked to terrorism emerged as the leader of the Islamic militants who seized control of the capital, Mogadishu, earlier this month.
The sheik, Hassan Dahir Aweys, was appointed the leader of the Council of the Islamic Courts, the newly formed governing entity of the movement that ousted Mogadishu's secular warlords on June 5. Previously, the public face of the Islamists had been Sharif Ahmed, a more moderate sheik who had spoken of his desire to work with the West.
The emergence of Mr. Aweys may represent another setback for the Bush administration's policy in Somalia. Mr. Aweys, a former military colonel, was vice chairman of Al Itihaad, an Islamic group that Washington labeled a terrorist group in the weeks after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Mr. Aweys, 71, who wears a bushy beard dyed bright red with henna in the traditional Somali way, was similarly cited for links to terrorism and barred from visiting the United States. No evidence to back up the claim was given at the time.
Usually reclusive, Mr. Aweys has spoken to reporters in recent months, disavowing links with terrorism and accusing the West of being too quick to label Islamist leaders throughout the Muslim world extremists. [ HA! ]
Still, Mr. Aweys, of the powerful Ayr clan, has publicly told followers that God would forgive them for spilling the blood of any foreign peacekeepers who set foot on Somali soil. He has also said Somalis who hand over their countrymen to American operatives in exchange for cash are guilty of "selling us to the Jews."
Mr. Aweys was appointed to lead a new 88-member council at a meeting of hundreds of Islamic leaders in Mogadishu on Saturday night. Earlier in the week, a delegation of Somali Islamists agreed to recognize and work together with the secular government that was formed in 2004 after long peace negotiations involving all of Somalia's clans. That United Nations-backed government, based in the provincial town of Baidoa because Mogadishu had been considered too dangerous for it to relocate there, is struggling to gain a foothold.
Mr. Aweys has repeatedly declared that an Islamic state is the only answer for Somalia, which has effectively been in anarchy since its last government fell in 1991. Mr. Aweys is a critic of the secular government and a longtime foe of its president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
In the 1990's, Mr. Aweys and Mr. Yusuf led military campaigns against each other, and those who know them say the enmity remains.
"The Western world should respect our own ideas in choosing the way we want to govern our country, the way we want to go about our own business," Mr. Aweys said in an interview with The Associated Press last fall. "That is our right."
In recent years, the United States backed a covert program to pay Mogadishu's warlords for their assistance in tracking down those in Somalia with links to terrorism.
That policy backfired, however, when Islamists banded together earlier this year and took on the American-backed warlords, ousting them from the capital. In an effort to recover, American officials have in recent weeks lent their support to Somalia's transitional government, which had only lukewarm backing from Washington before.
The Bush administration has said its top priority in Somalia remains rooting out members of Al Qaeda who Washington believes are being protected in Mogadishu.
"It is very clear that there are foreign terrorists in Somalia," Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters in Nairobi last week.
She called for the Islamic leaders in Mogadishu to hand them over, citing the names of three foreigners who she said were in Somalia and have been linked to terrorist attacks in East Africa — Fazul Abdullah Mohammed of Comoros, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan of Kenya and Abu Taha al-Sudani of Sudan.
Somalia watchers were still waiting Sunday for signs of whether the appointment of Mr. Aweys represented a significant shift in the Islamic leaders' intentions toward the West.
"It's too early to have a complete assessment," said Mario Raffaelli, the Italian special envoy for Somalia. "We have to see if they are dropping dialogue or just adding more voices to the discussion."
In fact, some analysts said that the appointment of Mr. Aweys might prove a good thing by bringing his hard-line views into the open. Sharif Ahmed, the movement's former leader, considered more of a moderate in his views toward secular government, remains head of a newly formed executive committee that will handle day-to-day affairs, officials said.
"Engagement is still the answer," said Mr. Raffaelli, who has urged his government and others following developments in Somalia not to respond precipitously to the elevation of Mr. Aweys. "To say a so-called bad guy is in charge will only serve to reinforce the extremists. This movement continues to have moderate voices."
Mr. Aweys's backers are known to be well armed, and his ascendance is seen as connected to a regional struggle in the Horn of Africa. A May 2006 report by a United Nations panel of experts studying violations to the arms embargo in Somalia said Mr. Aweys's militant group still had operations in the country and had received numerous arms shipments from Eritrea, which analysts say is trying to destabilize its avowed enemy, Ethiopia.
Mr. Aweys has clashed in the past with Ethiopia. His militia was soundly defeated by the Ethiopian Army in the early 1990's. Ethiopian officials have made it clear in recent months that they do not intend to allow any government that threatens stability in their country to emerge in Somalia.
Abukar Albadri contributed reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia, for this article.