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Somalia: Big Welcome for Islamist Chief in Central Somalia


Somali's Obama...Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed

Crowds of people gathered at a small airstrip in the central Somali town of Beletwein Tuesday to welcome a delegation led by Islamic Courts Union (ICU) executive chief, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

ICU officials, including regional head Sheikh Abdirahman Ibrahim Ma'ow, were present at Ugas Khalif Airport in Beletwein, the provincial capital of Hiran region.


Sheikh Sharif's delegation includes senior representatives from the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), an exiled opposition coalition that includes Islamists and ex lawmakers.

The ARS delegation was quickly ushered to Hotel Medina, where they are holding back to-back meetings with ICU officials, traditional elders and community leaders.

Hawiye Council

A delegation from the self-appointed Hawiye Unity and Tradition Council met with Sheikh Sharif and other ARS officials while in Jowhar yesterday.

Mr. Ahmed Dirie, spokesman for the Hawiye Council, told reporters that the traditional elders and the ARS officials discussed key issues including the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops and the dispute among ICU leaders.

The ARS faction led by Sheikh Sharif inked a peace pact with the Somali government last month that provides a timetable for Ethiopian army withdrawal and the implementation of a ceasefire agreement.

Some Islamist guerrilla groups and the ARS faction allied to Eritrea-based hardliner Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys have rejected the peace deal and vowed more war.

But Sheikh Sharif's peace initiative received a major boost of support when the ICU's top ground commander, Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar, visited Jowhar to meet privately with the ARS delegation.

According to Mr. Dirie, the Hawiye Council has also spoken with the Eritrea-based ARS faction and al Shabaab insurgents about the prospects of peace and the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces.

Mediation

The spokesman for a group of Islamic clerics who said they are mediating among ICU leaders told the media Tuesday that their efforts are "going well."

Sheikh Nur Barud Gurhan told a telephone press conference that they dispatched delegations to several regions and districts to meet with ICU's local officials, while specifically naming the regions of Galgadud, Hiran and Middle Shabelle.

Sheikh Gurhan distanced the Muslim clerics from accusations by Eritrea-based ICU officials that the group of scholars are biased by saying that their sole intention is to mediate among the ICU factions.

The clerics issued a fatwa recently calling for an all-ICU general conference to be held inside Somalia within a month.

Somalia, a country in the Horn of Africa region, has been mired in conflict since 1991. In mid-2006, the ICU militia took control of Mogadishu and other south-central regions and restored order using Islamic law.

With U.S. support, Ethiopian troops invaded the country and dislodged the ICU from power. The ICU fighting force disintegrated and smaller units began a bloody anti-Ethiopia insurgency, killing nearly 10,000 people in the last two years.

Insecurity

Unknown gunmen shot and killed a member of ICU security forces in Jowhar, capital of Middle Shabelle region, sources said.

Witnesses said three men armed with rifles killed the victim Monday evening inside a teashop near Hotel Subiye, where Sheikh Sharif and the ARS delegation were staying at since Saturday.

ICU commanders in Jowhar declined to comment on the killing, but Jowhar residents said hundreds of security forces were searching neighborhoods for the escaped killers.
There was no motive given for the killing, which is very uncommon in relatively peaceful Jowhar.

But the shooting death of an ICU officer comes at a time when several Islamist commanders have publicly criticized Sheikh Sharif's peace deal with the Ethiopian-backed Somali interim government.

In Beletwein, unidentified gunmen attacked the town's central police station Monday night and "freed many prisoners," witnesses reported.

It was not immediately clear why the ICU-controlled police station was attacked, but informed sources told Garowe Online that clan militiamen were angered when an ICU gunman held on murder charges was "freed illegally."