Islamic courts tighten grip

Steve Bloomfield in Nairobi
Sunday Herald, 27 August 2006

SOMALIA is on the brink of a new conflict that could plunge the Horn of Africa into a bloody regional war, diplomats have warned. Fighters from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Eritrea have entered the war-torn country in support of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) who now control the capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern Somalia.

Ethiopian troops have also crossed the border, to support the weak transitional government based in Baidoa, 130 miles northwest of Mogadishu. Peace talks between the government and the UIC have been postponed twice and the rhetoric on both sides has increased in the past month.

The threat of renewed conflict rose last week as the UIC opened a military training camp at Hiilweyne, north of Mogadishu . Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the hardline leader of the UIC, told the 600-strong recruits: “You will study military tactics because you will defend your country with Islamic morality.”

Somalia has not had an effective central government for 15 years, since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other. The latest effort to form a government, led by President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi and backed by the UN, has been beleaguered by splits and defections.

Gedi, who was a vet with no political experience before he was appointed prime minister, has faced more than 40 resignations from his Cabinet and narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in parliament.

Holed up in a former World Food Programme grain warehouse, the government has no control outside of Baidoa. Without much of an army itself, it has turned to Ethiopia – a country hated by many Somalis – for protection. Ethiopian officials have denied they have any soldiers in Somalia, but have threatened to “crush” the Islamists if they attacked Baidoa.

In 1996, Ethiopian troops entered Somalia to defeat Islamists who were backing a rebel group in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. In a recent interview, Sheikh Aweys laid claim to the Ogaden as part of a Greater Somalia.

Osama bin Laden, in his most recent tape recording, backed the UIC and said Somalia must remain Islamic. Aweys, who was once a senior leader of the jihadi Islamist group al-Itihaad al-Islaam , has been linked to the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam. It is also claimed that he has a link to bin Laden. The US has Aweys on its list of those wanted in connection with terrorism.

Islamic courts were originally set up in the early 1990s to introduce basic law and order to the country. Individual clans established a council, known as a shura, which chose a chairman. The shura then appointed a militia leader. But deep ideological divisions exist within the Islamic courts – the UIC’s leadership encompasses a kaleidoscope of views, from those advocating democratic rule to hardliners linked to terrorist atrocities.

US fears that some Islamists were sheltering known terrorists led to the formation of a US-funded counter- terrorism group of Mogadishu warlords – the same warlords who drove the US out in 1993 . But this coalition was roundly defeated by the courts’ militias.

Buoyed by their success, the UIC has since taken more strategically important towns, reopened Mogadishu’s port and airstrip for the first time in a decade, and clamped down on piracy .

Residents in Mogadishu say a sense of law and order has returned to the city. By dismantling the warlords’ roadblocks, the price of food has dropped as traders no longer have to pay so many bribes to transport goods across town.

Peace talks between the government and the UIC are due to resume in Khartoum, Sudan, this week. But the Arab League-mediated talks have stalled several times already, with both sides refusing to attend.

One diplomat said: “ We hope the parties can at least keep talking. But it is fraught. Every weekend you are waiting for something new to happen.”

©2006 newsquest (sunday herald) limited.