A Somali warlord forced out of Mogadishu last month has
surrendered to Islamic leadership that now controls the
bullet-riddled capital, an Islamic official confirmed on
Monday.
Omar Mohamed Mohamud Finish, one of the warlords defeated in the
battle for the control of the Somali capital surrendered with 100
fighters and several armed pick-up trucks, said an official from
the Islamic courts who sought anonymity in Nairobi.
Finish had been holed up in north Mogadishu after his associates
had fled Mogadishu. The warlord, who was religious affairs minister
in the Somali transitional government until he was sacked for his
role in the Mogadishu battle, has promised to set up a new Islamic
court in the Madina district he used to control.
Meanwhile, Somalia's interim Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi
has categorically denied reports that Ethiopian troops have entered
Somalia, or the town of Baidoa, where the country's fledgling
government is based.
This is the second time in the past two weeks tensions in the
Horn of Africa have escalated over unconfirmed reports that
Ethiopian troops have crossed into Somalia.
"There are no foreign troops in Somalia, and in Baidoa, as
well," Gedi said.
"There are no Ethiopian troops in Somalia and Baidoa. These
rumors are originating from opportunists, who are trying to createa
clash between Somalia and our neighbors," Gedi added.
Ethiopia also has denied it has crossed the border into Somalia,
saying it has deployed troops, but only along the border to defend
against what it calls provocative actions by the Islamists in
Mogadishu.
After capturing the capital early last month, hard-liners within
the Islamic courts recently consolidated power over the moderates,
and named Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys to head their legislative
arm.
Somalis, tired after 15 years without an effective national
government, are concerned about a possible new conflict between
Islamist and secular forces in their country.
The United States fears that the Islamists could provide a new
base for al-Qaida as regional experts went to Somalia on Monday for
talks with the government in their base of Baidoa, 200 km from
Mogadishu.
It was not clear whether the experts team from seven member
regional bloc, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development
(IGAD) and the African Union (AU) will also travel to Mogadishu for
talks with the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC), which
controls much of southern Somalia.
The United States and others accuse the Islamists of harboring
extremists, including al-Qaida members held responsible for the
1998 bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, a charge
denied by Aweys and others.
In an audiotape posted to an Islamic website on Saturday,
Osamabin Laden came out against the deployment of foreign
peacekeepers in Somalia and vowed resistance to them.
But Aweys has reportedly said bin Laden's weekend message to
Somali Islamists "has nothing to do with us."
Aweys dismissed having any links to al-Qaida and again said that
Ethiopian troops had already been sent to Somalia and were in the
government's seat of Baidoa.
"The statement made by Osama has nothing to do with us.
Muslimsshare common emotions and maybe he felt like this could help
Muslims who have problems today and so he made this statement,"
Aweys reportedly said.
He urged Somalis to unite against "the enemy number one of the
Somali people," apparently referring to Ethiopia.
The United States, whose disastrous attempt to pacify Somalia in
the early 1990s was captured in the book and film "Black Hawk
Down", has ruled out any contact with Aweys, whom the UN has linked
to al-Qaida.
The AU on Sunday renewed its support for regional peacekeepers
to be sent to Somalia, a deployment Aweys and other Islamists have
pledged in the past to fight.
There was no indication given on the size of a possible force as
the AU summit came to a conclusion in Banjul, Gambia late
Sunday.
Somalia was plunged into lawlessness in 1991 after the ousting
of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre and the nation of some 10 million
was then divided into a patchwork of fiefdoms governed by unruly
warlords.
(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2006)
