More Somali officials quit in protest at PM

Aug 2, 2006 (BAIDOA) — Somalia’s interim government unraveled further on Wednesday with the resignation of another four top officials who cited as their reason the prime minister’s reluctance to reach out to a rival Islamist movement.

The departure of four junior ministers brought to 34 the number of senior officials to have left the Western-backed but virtually powerless government in less than a week.

“We have resigned because the prime minister has refused reconciliation to go on between the government and the Islamic courts and all the Somalis,” said Hirsi Adan Roble, an assistant minister who quit.

The latest batch of resignations came a day after 12 ministers and assistant ministers also walked out in a move that may ultimately clear the way for the newly powerful Islamists to take ministerial posts, analysts and government sources say.

The Islamists, however, have not indicated whether they are interested in power-sharing, and some fear they are bent on taking all of Somalia and imposing hardline sharia law.

Eighteen ministers and other top officials also resigned last Thursday from their posts in Baidoa, the provincial seat of the interim government set up in 2004 in the 14th attempt to restore central rule to Somalia since 1991.

A cabinet colleague was shot dead there last week.

With Ethiopia sending troops across the border to help the government, according to witnesses, and Eritrea said to be arming the Islamists, diplomats are worried the Somali crisis could become a regional conflict.

The resignations leave Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi looking increasingly vulnerable, although he did survive a no confidence vote in parliament at the weekend.

He has come under increasing pressure from opponents who have criticized his “incompetent” performance and argued his removal was necessary to create a post for the Islamists, who took Mogadishu from warlords in early June.

With diplomats scrambling to get the government and Islamists together in Khartoum, Gedi has called for talks to be postponed.

MOGADISHU MOVE?

One diplomatic source said the resignations should not be interpreted as the implosion of the government, but as a deliberate attempt to marginalize Gedi, who is seen as an obstacle to talks with the Islamists.

Many Somalis blame Gedi for the presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil and accuse him of betraying his home — Mogadishu — and his Hawiye clan, to which many Islamists belong.

“This has nothing to do with the melting down of the TFIs (transitional federal institutions),” the source said.

He said the walkouts were a calculated move, supported by President Abdullahi Yusuf and the parliamentary speaker, to open up ministerial posts, with which to woo the Islamists and ensure the eventual return of the government to Mogadishu.

“Time is against the TFIs. The more the Islamic Courts Union develops Mogadishu, the more it will become a real capital and Baidoa will be emptied of its significance,” he added.

The resignations came as a senior U.N. official met the Islamists to discuss ways of securing aid supplies to Somalis.

“We wanted to clarify with Islamic courts about their position on women, human rights, women’s education, HIV/AIDS, and the practicality of implementing these activities,” said U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia Eric La Roche.

(Reuters)