But a plan to send in a peacekeeping force poses danger, backers of Islamic clerics say.
By SHASHANK BENGALI
McClatchy Newspapers
NAIROBI, Kenya | More than three months after a federation of Islamic clerics came to power in Somalia, the group has established strict religious rule in the wide swath of land it controls.
That was expected. But Somalis, diplomats and regional analysts say the group also has shown a willingness to negotiate, and that has eased fears that its rule would turn the anarchic country into another training ground and safe haven for Islamic terrorists.
“There was a feeling in the international community that the Taliban was taking over and there would be a big fight over Somalia in the region,” said Mario Raffaeli, Italy’s special envoy to Somalia. “But three months later there is no war; there is dialogue. So I have to be more optimistic.”
In recent weeks, the Somali Islamists have banned commercial activity during prayer times, closed movie houses and radio stations for “indecent” programming, and flogged dozens of people for using marijuana.
But they have also engaged in two rounds of talks with Somalia’s transitional government, a powerless but internationally backed body based 150 miles outside the capital, Mogadishu, in the provincial town of Baidoa. Last week the two sides agreed to form a unified national security force and to meet next month to discuss sharing political power.
On Thursday, the African Union endorsed a plan to send an 8,000-strong regional peacekeeping force into Somalia by the end of the month. The mission is intended to back the government, which has no military force of its own, but Islamist leaders denounced it as an invasion.
The Islamists’ backers say the peacekeeping mission could jeopardize the negotiations and, if the Islamists resist, plunge Somalia back into mayhem.
Source: McClatchy Newspapers, Sept 15, 2006
