Mogadishu, July 7 (AFP) – Islamic leaders controlling Somalia’s capital on Thursday renewed fierce objections to the deployment of foreign peacekeepers called for by the lawless country’s largely impotent government.
They also urged the international community to demand that Ethiopia, which they accuse of sending troops to support the transitional government, withdraw forces from Somali soil and reiterated denials of any terror links.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chairman of the executive committee of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS), said the proposed peacekeeping mission was “unnecessary and counter-productive” and would be resisted.
His comments set the stage for new confrontation with the government, which on Wednesday appealed anew for peacekeepers in talks with a visiting team of African and Arab officials assessing conditions for a possible deployment.
“The residents of Mogadishu and the Islamic courts have categorically stated their objection to the injection of foreign troops into our country,” Ahmed said in remarks to the same delegation.
“We believe that alien forces are both unnecessary and counter-productive,” he told the some 30 experts and diplomats from the African Union (AU), the Arab League and the East African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD)
In talks with Somalia’s transitional government on Wednesday, the experts were told of the urgent need for a peacekeepers from regional states and perhaps Muslim nations to stabilise the lawless country, officials said.
But Ahmed rejected that position.
“The Somali problem is a political one and cannot be resolved by military means,” Ahmed said, noting that the Islamic courts were restoring law and order and willing to discuss the situation with the government.
“The injection of foreign troops will jeopardise this positive development,” he said.
Islamic militia routed a US-backed warlord alliance in June after four months of bloody battles for control of Mogadishu and have become increasingly powerful, challenging the limited authority of the government.
Ahmed said the defeat of the warlords obviated any possible need for a peacekeeping mission and castigated the transitional government for continuing to insist on the matter.
He said the issue was best discussed between Somalis themselves in the context of a mutual recognition pact signed in Sudan in June by the Islamic courts and the government. New talks are set for next week in Khartoum.
“It is regrettable that the (government) has unilaterally decided to pursue the deployment of foreign troops against the spirit of the Khartoum agreement,” Ahmed said.
“We strongly propose that the issue of foreign troops be left for Somalis to discuss in the upcoming Khartoum negotiations,” he said.
The Horn of Africa nation of 10-million was plunged into anarchy with the 1991 ousting of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre whose fall ushered in more than a decade of lawlessness in which warlords ruled a patchwork of fiefdoms.
Source: AFP, July 7, 2006
