A prominent Somali cleric who is on the United States list of
terror suspects has been elected as head of an Islamist militia
that controls the Somali capital and most of the southern
regions.
An Islamic Courts Union (ICU) official confirmed on Monday that
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys was elected in absentia late Saturday as
the head of the 88-strong legislative council, Supreme Council of
Islamic Courts (SCIC), succeeding the more moderate Sheikh Sharif
Sheikh Ahmed in the newly created power structure.
A new, eight-member executive committee will be chaired by a
more moderate figure, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
"I am ready to lead the delegation that negotiates with the
government, but we will not compromise our stand relating to
Islamic system," Aweys reportedly said.
Until now Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was regarded as leader of the
Union of Islamic Courts, the militia that wrested control of
Mogadishu from warlords two weeks ago.
Consultations on the new structure are reportedly still under
way in the capital, Mogadishu.
"This is not final as consultations are going on. They are still
going to make other appointments to restructure of the ICU," said
Abdirahim Isse, an aide to Ahmed.
Sheikh Aweys, a prominent cleric, is seen as more radical. He
previously headed an armed group, al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, which the
United States said had links with al-Qaeda.
The network of 11 Islamic courts has been set up in recent years
in Mogadishu, funded by businessmen in an attempt to reestablish
law and order.
Accepting his election from the Galgadud region of Somalia,
Aweys called on the inhabitants of Mogadishu to be ready for
Islamist rule via local radio broadcast.
A former military colonel who once sentenced current President
Abdulahi Yusuf to death after seizing the northern port city of
Bosaso in 1992, the hardline cleric is an avowed rival of Yusuf's
largely powerless transitional administration.
Observers fear the fractious personal relationship between the
two men and Aweys's hardline Islamist ideology could derail a peace
pact signed between the Islamists and the transitional government
last Thursday in Sudan.
The courts' stated goal is to restore a system of Sharia law and
put an end to impunity and fighting.
A Somali link has been assumed in al-Qaeda-linked attacks in
East Africa -- including the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania and the 2002 attacks on Israeli tourists in
Kenya.
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The ICU, which has brought relative peace and stability to
Mogadishu after 15 years of anarchy, has made efforts to offset
accusations that it harbors al-Qaeda linked extremists.
The courts and the powerless transitional government based in
Baidoa, about 250 kilometers northwest of the capital, on last
Thursday signed a mutual recognition pact in Khartoum, paving the
way for future peace talks.
Somalia has lacked an effective government since 1991 when
dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991, paving the way for
the rise of the now-defeated warlords who ubdivided the country
into a patchwork of fiefdoms.
(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2006)
