Somalia’s govt,Islamic militia agree to form army
Sept 4, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Somalia’s weak government and an Islamic militia that controls much of the south signed an agreement late Monday to eventually form a unified national army, officials said.
The accord, which came after two days of peace talks in Sudan, did not specify when it would go into effect. Talks were to resume Oct. 30 in Khartoum.
Both sides also agreed to form a peace committee in order to determine how to implement the plan.
“We are pleased we came to this agreement within two days,” said Ibrahim Hassan Adow, who signed on behalf of the Islamic militia.
Abdullahi Sheik Ismail, one of several deputy prime ministers in the government, said: “The Islamic courts have met the expectations of our people.” The militia has set up a network of Islamic courts.
The mllitia agreed it won’t take any more territory and instead wait for the Oct. 30 talks. Both sides also agreed to stop the use of propaganda against each other.
It was the first time they agreed to form a national army.
Somalia’s parliament has endorsed a security plan drawn up by President Abdullahi Yusuf’s government that includes a role for a regional peacekeeping mission.
Islamic militants had demanded the administration reverse its call for international peacekeepers.
A coalition of east African nations will discuss peacekeepers in Somalia on Tuesday at a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. Adow, the Islamic group’s foreign affairs chief, said over the weekend that foreign interference would be “a recipe for the renewal of civil war,” alluding to reports that Ethiopian troops had taken up position in three Somali towns to protect the government.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, pulling the country into anarchy.
The current government was established two years ago with the support of the United Nations, but it has failed to assert any power outside its base in Baidoa, which is 150 miles from the capital, Mogadishu. On Monday, five people were killed in Baidoa when government forces took control of the airport from a clan-based militia, government officials said.
Clerics and militiamen set up a network of Islamic courts in a bid to restore order by enforcing Islamic law, sparking fears of an emerging Taliban-style regime. In June, they swept through Somalia, seizing control of much of the south, including the capital, Mogadishu.
The Islamic group has brought a semblance of order to a country that has seen little more than anarchy in years. Mogadishu’s airport and seaport have reopened after 11 years, and on Sunday the U.N.’s World Food Program sent a ship carrying cereal, oil and other staple foods.
(AP/ST)