| June 11, 2008 On Tuesday
Western and Muslim media reported that Sheikh Hassan Dahir
Aweys, former leader of Somalia's Islamic Courts' Union, had
rejected a so-called new "truce deal" between the country's
puppet "interim government" and fractions of the country's
Re-liberating movement after a UN-sponsored exhaustive talks
which was boycotted by main leadership of the Mujahidun.
The mainstream media described Sheikh Aweys as a member of
the opposition alliance that signed the deal, on Tuesday,
reporting that the 62-year old Sheikh condemned the
UN-sponsored deal as unreliable and dangerous.
Some even went as to misinform their public that the
Sheikh himself had signed the deal, while calling it
"a trap" to derail armed Somali resistance against Ethiopian
occupation forces. Perhaps, there confusion is in
understanding the nation's resistance group al-Shabab and
its leadership structures - mistaking the younger leader of
the organization Sheikh Sherif, who signed the accord for
senior Al-Shaba chief Sheikh Aweys.
Whatever, the misgivings, there are still little - if any
hopes after the agreement claimed from Monday UN-sponsored
so-called peace talks in Djibouti between Ethiopian-backed
Somali puppet government and some members of the Alliance
for the Liberation of Somalia (ALS), who had signed a
cessation of hostilities accord on the name of Mujahidun.
No wonder the deal could not escape criticism just hours
after it was signed.
Islamist resistance leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys
warned the few undisciplined fractions of the Somali Islamic
Courts Union driven by self-serving agenda that the
irrational talks between Somalia's interim government and
the opposition in Djibouti are a waste of time with no
tangible outcome to be accomplished.
Speaking to the Reuters news agency by phone from Eritrea,
Aweys said: "We encourage the resistance fightings and the
Somali people not to be tired of combating the enemy."
""I do not believe that the outcome of this conference
will have any impact on the resistance in Somalia. We shall
continue fighting until we liberate our country from the
enemies of Allah," the Somali leader, who has refused to be
designated for any portfolio in the operatives of divided
opposition alliance told Mogadishu-based Shabelle radio
earlier.
"The aim of the meeting was to derail the holy war in the
country," added Aweys, a leadership member of the ARS, an
opposition umbrella group dominated by Islamists and based
in the Eritrean capital Asmara.
The Islamist group Al-Shabab, the nation's most effective
organization belonging to the Islamic Courts Union, is
boycotting the talks saying they will not negotiate with
Somali corrupt puppet government of traitor Abdullah Yusuf
as long as Ethiopian troops and other foreign forces are on
Somali soil.
Agreement terms
Sheikh Aweys sees
the accord as desperate efforts by enemies of the Muslim
nation to trick the Mujahidun a way in with no way out of
forging an incomprehensive truce, which may see Ethiopian
troops maneuver needs to withdraw even after the United
Nations deployed peacekeepers from countries.
Although to the
so-called truce accord compels Ethiopian troops to withdraw
after the United Nations deployed peacekeepers from
countries friendly to Somalia - excluding neighbouring
states - within 120 days after the armistice takes effect,
there is no concrete evidence the Ethiopians and their
backers in Washington and Tel-Aviv would not violate the
agreement under their frauds of so-called war on terror.
On May 15, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution
opening the way to a gradual return of UN staff to Somalia
and possibly resulting in the deployment of peacekeepers
there, but did not set a timetable.
That’s one of
the reasons why Sheikh Aweys has fundamentally maintain his
objections towards the flawed accord, pointing out that fact
that the so-called new truce did not set a deadline for the
pullout of Ethiopian troops, who deployed at the end of 2006
and ousted Islamists from south and central Somalia despite
that the United Nations had tried to announce
the terms of the Somali peace deal late on Monday, calling
the agreement "a step forward".
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, an aide to the UN envoy for Somalia,
said: "We have a peace deal."
"They agreed on the termination of all acts of armed
confrontation ... to come into force 30 days from the
signing of the agreement for an initial period of 90 days,
renewable."
Ould-Abdallah said the agreement also called for the UN to
authorize deployment of an international stabilisation
force.
Within 120 days, Ethiopian occupation forces helping the
"government" fight the Islamic Courts' Union fighters would
then leave, conditional on the deployment of sufficient UN
troops, he promised.
However,
according to Sheikh Aweys "the agreement does not offer a
timetable of the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces. It is not
clear when they will leave."
The senior leader of Somalia's popular Islamist resistance
movement of the Union of Islamic Courts reassured on Sunday
commitments to expel invaders and imperialists United States
and their serfs Ethiopian troops by force and create a
prosperous Islamic republic in the war-torn country on the
Horn of Africa.
Tense talks
The main sticking point in negotiations has been the
presence of predominantly Christian Ethiopian occupation
forces on Somali soil - a mostly Muslim country, according
to Ould-Abdallah.
He had persuaded teams from both sides to come twice to
Djibouti in May and this month. But they declined to meet
directly, until Monday's signing ceremony.
Many Somalis favour the stance taken by the sheikh, arguing
that the Mujahidun did not have to participate unless
Ethiopian troops backing government forces pulled out of
Somalia where clashes between Muslim fighters and
Somali-Ethiopian forces killed at least 28 people over the
weekend in the capital city.
Earlier on Tuesday the resistance popular Sheikh said:
"the meeting was hastily planned and the main thorny issues
are not addressed."
"We maintain that dialogue could succeed only if Somalia
was freed from "Ethiopian occupation" and its people were
able to enjoy freedom and justice.
He said: "The UN is not impartial. We don't want to pursue
this [peace] process. Our plan is to continue the struggle.
It is important to expel the enemies from all areas."
"We don't want a fight to the death. We don't want
to kill all the Ethiopian invaders. We want to save them. We
want them to leave," Sheikh Aweys said
Nearly 2,600 African Union peacekeepers are currently
deployed in Mogadishu. The troops, from Uganda and Burundi,
are part of a planned UN authorized 8,000-strong African
Union peacekeepers.
Other African countries that pledged to contribute did not
send their contingents due to logistical and security
concerns. Plans are underway to replace the African Union
peacekeepers with UN peacekeepers at some later date.
The fighters are waging a campaign, similar to those in
Iraq and Afghanistan, of roadside bombings, ambushes and
assassinations.
The violence has triggered a humanitarian crisis that aid
workers say may be the worst in Africa, with at least a
million people displaced. |
