Somali Islamists urge Kenya to push for Ethiopian withdrawal

Aug 14, 2006 (MOGADISHU) — The Islamic Courts Union militia controlling key parts of Somalia have asked for Kenya’s help in ousting Ethiopian troops deployed to protect Somalia’s transitional government, Kenya’s Deputy Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said on Monday.

Wetangula said the Islamists had asked Kenya to put pressure on Ethiopia during talks in Mogadishu.

The Islamists’ senior official, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, said Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki “should to do something about the activities of Somali neighbouring countries, particularly Ethiopia,” Wetangula said after talks with senior Islamists.

“I am sure I will convey the message to the president,” he added.

The Mogadishu talks were aimed at convincing the Islamists and Somalia’s transitional government to participate in Arab League-mediated negotiations in Khartoum.

Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said the Islamists were “ready to attend the peace process in Sudan,” but that the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia was an obstacle to this.

Earlier, Wetangula met with Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi and Parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Ahmed, at the government base in the southcentral town of Baidoa, where they also expressed their willingness to participate in the peace process.

Gedi’s government, formed in Kenyan in 2004 after length talks, was seen as the best chance to restore stability in the lawless nation, whose last government collapsed after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The rise of the Islamists, who control the capital and much of southern Somalia, has seriously undermined its authority.

The Islamists seized Mogadishu and its environs in June after routing warlords who had ruled Somalia since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

(ST)