Somalia Islamic courts warn against foreign troops

reuters ^ | 6/12/06 | By Mohamed Ali Bile

[Flavius]

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A senior Islamic judicial official warned Somalia's interim government on Monday that talks on the anarchic country's future would be broken off if its parliament invited in foreign peacekeeping troops.

Militia loyal to Islamic courts wrested control of the capital Mogadishu last week from warlords widely believed to be funded by Washington, after a three-month battle that killed at least 350 people, most of them civilians.

The weak interim government, formed in Kenya in 2004, was quick to praise the Islamic courts for the victory in Mogadishu and has started talks with the courts to help it move there.

But Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the Mogadishu Islamic courts chairman, said that if the talks were to continue, the government had to first abandon its request for foreign troops.

"The government should stop the request of foreign troops in order for internal discussion with us to continue," Ahmed told reporters. "Negotiations with the government are not possible at this time because parliament could approve foreign troops."

Officials said parliament hoped to approve such a deployment during Monday's session in the southern city of Baidoa.

Even if it passes the motion, the proposed force of Ugandan and Sudanese troops cannot go unless the U.N. Security Council lifts an arms embargo in place since 1992. Washington has promised to veto any such attempt.

The government has repeatedly said it cannot operate in the lawless Horn of Africa country without foreign peacekeepers to provide security.

Somali lawmaker Awad Ashara said the government was ready to talk to the Islamists about the issue.

"We are ready to open responsible negotiations with them regarding anything they have a concern with," he told Reuters in Nairobi. "We have a common national cause with the Islamic courts which is to save the Somali people."

"READY TO DEAL"

Western diplomats said the government is trying to cut a deal with the Islamic courts.

"(President Abdullahi) Yusuf is ready to deal with them and give them their political ambitions and in turn the Islamic courts will not impose its sharia law ... in the period of the transition," one diplomat who declined to be named said.

"Now that the warlords are out of the equation ... the only hope for Somalia is an understanding between the courts and the government."

Analysts expect the arms embargo to remain even if the parliament and the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional conflict mediation body that helped form Somalia's government, pass the motion or not.

"I don't see (the arms embargo being lifted), simply because half of the IGAD countries are already breaking the embargo by providing arms to Somali groups," a U.N. source said.

Fears of new fighting heightened on Sunday when Islamic fighters armed with mortars and anti-aircraft guns, were deployed near Balad, 30 km (18 miles) north of Mogadishu, in a move believed to be a preparation to attack the last warlord stronghold of Jowhar, 90 km north of the capital.

Analysts say if the Islamic militia captures Jowhar, they will control most of south Somalia, raising questions about whether they will help install the interim government or set up a rival administration.

Somalia has been without a real government since 1991 when former strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted by clan warlords. The interim government has so far failed to assert any real authority over the country of 10 million people.

(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed)

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RE #1

Do UAV's armed with hellfire missiles count as foreign troops?