Hardline Islamist takes over Somali opposition alliance
July 23, 2008 (NAIROBI) — A fundamentalist Muslim suspected by the U.S. of collaborating with al-Qaida has taken over leadership of Somalia’s opposition alliance, pushing out a relative moderate who attended peace talks with the government, officials said Wednesday.
Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys — who denies any links to terror — said he deposed the chairman, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, because Ahmed had agreed to a U.N.-brokered peace deal with Somalia’s weak administration last month.
“From now on I will be the leader,” Aweys said by telephone from exile in Eritrea, adding that the opposition decided to remove Ahmed “because of his misuse of the leadership.”
Aweys and other hardline members of the opposition alliance did not respect the deal Ahmed helped strike last month. The agreement has had no effect on the ground in this bloodstained country, where a vicious insurgency has killed thousands of civilians since 2007.
Ahmed, speaking by telephone from Djibouti, denounced the decision to remove him.
“I only performed my duty, which is to help my people and my country get a lasting peace by all means,” Ahmed said.
Opposition spokesman Zakariye Haji Mohamoud said more than 100 out of 191 members of the group’s central committee voted against Ahmed on Tuesday night.
The Somali government said it will not comment until after a Cabinet meeting Thursday.
It remains to be seen whether Ahmed will fight for his job or gain the support of insurgents on the ground. It is unlikely al-Shabab, the military wing of Somalia’s Islamic movement responsible for countless attacks, would follow his lead.
The U.S. State Department considers al-Shabab, or “The Youth,” a terrorist organization and has long been concerned this lawless country could become a haven for al-Qaida.
Arid, impoverished Somalia has not had a functioning central government since warlords overthrew a socialist dictator in 1991 then turned their clan-based militias on each other.
The current administration was formed in 2004 with the help of the U.N., but it has failed to assert any real control or protect its citizens from spiraling violence and poverty.
This is not the first time Aweys and Ahmed have jockeyed for power. Both were top leaders of the country’s Council of Islamic Courts, which ruled the capital and much of southern Somalia for about six months in 2006 before troops from neighboring Ethiopia arrived to push them out.
Aweys, who led the group at the height of its rule, advocated a strict Islamic government to end more than a decade of anarchy in Somalia. Ahmed was moderate in comparison, softening his anti-Western rhetoric and agreeing to talk to the government.
But since being ousted in late 2006, the Islamic group launched a deadly, Iraq-style insurgency. The opposition moved into exile in Eritrea, with Ahmed as its leader.
Adding to Somalia’s violent insecurity, the country is in the grip of a humanitarian emergency, with more than 2 million people dependent on aid. The U.N. has issued an aid appeal for US$637 million for Somalia, but so far has received about a third of that.
Responding to the crisis in Somalia is particularly dangerous because violence against aid workers has dramatically increased this year, with at least six workers killed and several others kidnapped for ransom.
It is unclear who is behind the killings, since many factions in Somalia’s chaotic war stand to benefit from them.
Powerful local leaders have previously complained that aid workers are feeding Islamic insurgents who had sworn to fight the government. Insurgents also have targeted Somalis affiliated with foreign organizations in the past.
The problem has been compounded by the growth of professional kidnapping rings. Security experts say they have been encouraged by the large ransoms paid by foreigners to release ships taken by pirates.
On Sunday, a ship with 20 Filipino sailors was hijacked off the coast of Somalia, the Philippines Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Estaban Conejos said.
Conejos said Wednesday the country has ruled out paying a ransom to free the hostages, saying it is against the Philippine government’s policy.
(AP°